Belgian Man Charged with Attempting to Illegally Export Aluminum Tubes to Malaysian Front for Individual in Iran

CHICAGO—A Belgian businessman is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow on federal charges alleging that he violated U.S. laws by attempting to export aluminum tubes that were controlled for nuclear non-proliferation purposes from a company in Schaumburg, through Belgium, to a company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, without obtaining a license from the U.S. Commerce Department, federal law enforcement officials announced today. The case follows a lengthy undercover investigation in which the Schaumburg company, which was cooperating with law enforcement, actually shipped different non-controlled aluminum tubes to the defendant’s business in Belgium before they were allegedly illegally transshipped to Malaysia. Court documents allege that the Malaysian business is a front company operated by an individual who is located at times in Iran. The case involves 7075 T6 aluminum tubing with an outside diameter of 4.125 inches and an ultimate tensile strength of 572 MPa (megapascals), which is used in the aerospace industry, among other applications. As a controlled material, a license was required from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security to export the 7075 aluminum from the U.S. to Malaysia, but not to Belgium. The defendant, Nichols Kaiga, 36, of Brussels and London, was charged with one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and two counts of making false statements on U.S. export forms in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury last Thursday. Kaiga has been in federal custody since he was arrested on June 25 in New York City, approximately a week after he arrived there. A criminal complaint filed at the time of his arrest was unsealed when he was indicted last week. Kaiga will be arraigned at 11 a.m. tomorrow before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria Valdez in U.S. District Court in Chicago.