A Chinese national was convicted Friday in a United States federal court in Boston of exporting to Iran equipment that could be used to make nuclear weapons-grade uranium, the Boston Globe quoted federal prosecutors as saying.
Sihai Cheng, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to commit export violations and smuggle goods from the U.S. to Iran and four counts of illegally exporting U.S.-manufactured pressure transducers to Iran, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said.
Prosecutors said that from February 2009 through at least 2011 Cheng and two other people had conspired with each other and others in China and Iran to illegally obtain and export the equipment manufactured by MKS Instruments Inc., which is headquartered in Massachusetts.
The equipment can be used in gas centrifuges to enrich uranium and produce weapons-grade uranium, prosecutors said.
MKS Instruments is not a target of the investigation and has been cooperating, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris slated sentencing for Cheng for January 27.
Cheng, who was indicted in 2013, was arrested in the United Kingdom in February 2014. He unsuccessfully fought extradition to the United States.
