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Golf president battles extradition to US for ’selling batteries for Iran missiles’

Posted by Zand-Bon on Aug 18th, 2010 and filed under INTERNATIONAL NEWS FOCUS, News, Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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Christopher Tappin, 63, made £320 from freight deal which he says was unlawful sting by US agents posing as exporters

By Helen Pidd

Source:

August 17, 2010

Retired businessman Christopher Tappin faces 35 years in jail if convicted by a US court of selling batteries for surface-to-air missilies in Iran. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA

To the golfers of Orpington, Chris Tappin was a retired businessman who had a string of awards under his belt after a long and lucrative career in commerce. But to investigators in the US, the Kent County Golf Union president was a criminal mastermind happy to prop up ’s missile building programme for personal profit.

These two worlds collided in May when the 63-year-old was arrested in a dawn raid at his five-bedroom house in Farnborough Park, an exclusive private estate in Orpington, south-east London.

Today, dressed in an immaculate suit and golf club tie and flanked by his pearl-wearing wife, Tappin held a news conference in London to sell himself as a man of “unblemished good character” as he denied three charges of plotting to smuggle five special batteries for surface-to-air missiles to Tehran.

He says he will fight , in the latest case to expose tensions in arrangements for transferring criminal suspects between Britain and the .

Tappin admits arranging the shipment of batteries from the US to the Netherlands at the end of 2006. But he insists he had no idea they were ultimately destined for re-export for the manufacture of Iranian missiles, and claims he was a victim of a sting by US customs officers.

In two weeks he will appear in front of an extradition hearing in London to argue he should not be shipped off to El Paso, Texas, to face the charges against him. If found guilty he faces up to 35 years in a US jail. It is a long sentence for a $25,000 (£16,000) deal which Tappin claimed netted him just $500 profit.

“I deny these allegations,” Tappin said. “I was the victim of the unlawful conduct of US agents who pretended to belong to a false company, known as Mercury Global Enterprises (MGE). It exists solely to ensnare unsuspecting importers.”

He had not known that MGE was a front operation for undercover customs agents, set up to entrap those wanting to export banned items to Iran. He says he became involved via a business contact, Robert Gibson, who suggested MGE could handle the paperwork on the battery deal.

Tappin claims he had no idea the batteries were to be used in the arms trade because MGE assured him they did not need a special export licence and told him they were heading for the car industry.

“They misled me by sending me paperwork which clearly stated ‘no licence required’,” he said, adding that he had never done any arms deals during his 35 years as a freight forwarder working in import and export all over the world, including Iran.

US authorities claim Tappin used the alias “Ian Pullen” in contacts with the undercover agents, and according to an indictment filed at the Texas western district court in February 2007, Tappin spoke with the customs agent at least five times in 2006 to arrange the deal. He then wired a $25,000 payment into the fake company’s bank account to pay for the batteries and sent a $5,000 cheque to one of the undercover agents through an intermediary.

While denying the three charges against him today, Tappin said he was prepared to face trial in the UK. He believes he will not get a fair trial in the US, and says he needs to stay here to care for his wife, Elaine, who suffers from Churg-Strauss syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease.

Tappin’s case has been taken up by Karen Todner, the solicitor who also represents Gary McKinnon, the alleged computer hacker who faces extradition over allegations he broke into Pentagon computers. It was crucial that any trial be held in the UK said Ben Seifert, spokesman for Todner.

He said: “[Tappin's] response to the allegations would, were justice to be appropriately done, be comprehensible to a jury of his peers in this country. His defence case could not and would not be transferable 3,000 miles to a jury trial in which, despite the seeming commonality of language, relevant culture, education assumptions and context would be entirely alien.”

He said the agents’ conduct was “misleading and dishonest”, adding: “Ultimately the US agents resorted to proactive deceit and told lies in order to attempt to ensnare and entrap a respected British businessman.”

Underlining Tappin’s impeccable credentials, Seifert said: “Mr Tappin is a British citizen who has at all times lived in Britain, where he was educated and conducted his business … he is of unblemished good character and has won industry awards for his achievements as a businessman.”

Jo Johnson, Tappin’s MP, has also taken up his case, and has written to the Home Office to ask about the government’s review into the current extradition agreements, which is due to report back in September next year.

“I do think the 2003 Extradition Act as passed by the last government is in need of reform,” he said.

Lawyers complain that under the current law the US is not required to offer any substantial proof of an allegation when seeking to extradite a suspect from Britain to stand trial.

The act has been a hot political potato in recent years following widespread publicity for McKinnon and the so-called NatWest Three, who were extradited to the US over allegations of conspiring with former Enron executives to dupe the bank out of $20m.

Tappin’s full extradition hearing will take place at City of Westminster magistrates court on 2 September. The court will decide whether to send the case to the home secretary, Theresa May, who must make a final decision on whether to send him to the US.

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