Singaporean sentenced in US for plot to export bomb parts to Iran

[WASHINGTON] A Singaporean man was sentenced to 40 months in prison Thursday for helping ship US-made radio frequency modules to Iran that were eventually found in IED bombs in Iraq.

Lim Yong Nam, 43, also known as Steven Lim, pleaded guilty last December in Washington to fraud charges related to US sanctions violations by helping route 6,000 of the modules through Singapore to Iran.

Lim and others he worked with had declared Singapore as the final destination for the electronics, but instead they were forwarded from the south-east Asian city-state in five lots to Iran, the US Justice Department said.

"Lim and his co-conspirators were directly aware of the restrictions on sending US-origin goods to Iran," the department said.

The modules can be used in networking home and office computer equipment. But in 2008-2009, coalition forces in Iraq discovered modules from the same shipments being used in the detonation systems of unexploded IEDs, or improvised explosive devices.

Lim was detained in the case in Indonesia in 2014 and extradited to the United States last year.

He pleaded guilty on December 15 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

AFP