A person with twin Canadian-Pakistani citizenship has been detained within the U.S. for allegedly circumventing export management legal guidelines.
Mohammad Jawaid Aziz, often known as Jawaid Aziz Siddiqui and Jay Siddiqui, 67, was arrested on March 21 in Washington state after trying to cross into the U.S. utilizing the Peace Arch B.C. border crossing.
Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer based mostly in Blaine, Wash., stated Aziz contacted him about eight years in the past with questions on admissibility to the USA.
He then met Aziz in 2022 at Peace Arch Park on the Peace Arch border crossing.
“We talked about admissibility to the USA. I don’t bear in mind the precise particulars, however he did have some considerations about getting into the USA after which I by no means heard again from him,” Saunders advised World Information.
He added that Aziz is in federal detention, which is situated in SeaTac.
“That’s critical federal crimes,” Saunders stated.
“I’ve been working towards U.S. immigration legislation in Blaine for 25 years and that is solely a handful of circumstances that I’ve seen the place somebody’s really been arrested and brought all the way down to Seattle.”
Saunders described it as “unprecedented.”
He added that, from his understanding, Aziz was invited to return to the U.S. by the Division of Homeland Safety.
“It appears to me a kind of bait-and-switch,” Saunders stated. “From what I can see, it appears to be like like he could have obtained a letter within the mail from Homeland Safety and believed what it stated and went to the border. It saved the People from extraditing this particular person from Canada.”
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The U.S. Division of Justice alleges Aziz operated a bootleg procurement community utilizing his Canada-based firm, Diversified Know-how Companies.
The division states this community was used to acquire U.S.-origin items on behalf of prohibited entities in Pakistan that had been related to the nation’s nuclear, missile, and Unmanned Aerial Car (UAV) packages.
The products consisted of dual-use know-how and supplies to assist Pakistan’s nuclear, drone and missile packages, primarily the parts wanted to make them
It’s alleged that from 2003 to March 2019, Aziz procured varied items, together with delicate and restricted objects topic to export administration rules (EAR) and people on the Commerce Management Checklist, from U.S. firms on behalf of the restricted entities in Pakistan.
As alleged, he and his co-conspirators labored to hide the true end-users of the products from U.S. firms, typically utilizing entrance firms and transshipping items by way of third international locations to evade detection, in response to the Division of Justice.
Below the U.S. authorities’s Division of Commerce, sure items and applied sciences from the U.S. to international international locations are reviewed and managed. The division positioned restrictions on the export of products and applied sciences that it decided might make a major contribution to army potential or nuclear proliferation of different nations that may very well be detrimental to U.S. international coverage or nationwide safety.
In keeping with court docket paperwork from the U.S., Aziz would method U.S. firms about procuring items requested by the restricted Pakistani organizations and firms by way of an organization based mostly in Karachi, Pakistan, known as Worldwide Buying and selling Firm.
When he would obtain pricing data, Aziz and his co-conspirators would submit quotes to the restricted entity in Pakistan, sometimes with an upcharge that might enable them to revenue from the transaction.
If the quantity was agreed upon, court docket paperwork state that the products could be exported on to Pakistan or transshipped to Pakistan by way of a 3rd nation, with out export licences, which violates U.S. legislation. These things included industrial workstations, a thermal conductivity unit and a centrifugal pump, in response to the paperwork.
Aziz is charged with conspiracy to violate the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act (IEEPA) and Export Management Reform Act, which carries a most statutory penalty of 5 years in jail; and violating the Export Management Reform Act, which carries a most statutory penalty of 20 years in jail.
On March 27, a Seattle choose decided that Aziz posed a critical flight threat and that he shouldn’t be granted bail.
The Division of Justice says Aziz stays in custody as of Friday, pending switch to Minnesota, the place the investigation is essentially based mostly.
Not one of the allegations have been confirmed in court docket.
The indictment says Pakistan first examined a nuclear bomb in 1998, and the USA has imposed export restrictions on the nation and entities linked to the Pakistani army packages since then.
— with recordsdata from The Canadian Press
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