MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO EXPORT ENFORCEMENT VIOLATIONS

 

U. S. Attorney Jim Letten announced today the unsealing of a case in which NELSON S. GALGOUL, age 57, a resident of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who also maintains United States citizenship, pleaded guilty on August 2, 2007, to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions Regulations. The indictment was filed on June 7, 2007 and recently unsealed by the Court and the defendants is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2008.

According to court documents, GALGOUL is the director of SUPORTE, a Brazilian consulting engineering firm which acted as an agent for Engineering Dynamics, Inc. (EDI), a Kenner, Louisiana engineering company that designed, produced, marketed, and supported Structural Analytical Computer Software (SACS), an engineering software program intended to assist in the design of offshore oil and gas structures. Beginning around March, 1995, and continuing through February, 2007, GALGOUL, acting as an agent for EDI, marketed and serviced SACS and trained users of the software in Iran. Since SACS is a controlled product under various United States laws and regulations due to the product’s sophistication and its potential use, GALGOUL’s actions violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions Regulations by exporting and attempting to export the SACS engineering software program to Iran without having first obtained the required authorizations from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

GALGOUL faces a maximum term of imprisonment of five (5) years, a fine of $250,000.00 and three (3) years of supervised release following any term of imprisonment.

The case was investigated by agents of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Commerce, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael W. Magner and Gregory Kennedy.