Man of Turkish origin defrauds Pentagon, illegally exports data

A man of Turkish origin was sentenced to a prison term of 33 months for defrauding the US Department of Defense (DoD) and illegally exporting defense technical data to a Turkish company, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Thursday.

Arif Ugur, a 53-year-old resident of the state of Massachusetts and the founder of Anatolia Group Limited Partnership, bid on and acquired contracts in 2015 to supply the DOD with various parts and components intended for use by the U.S. military.

While many of the contracts required that the parts be manufactured in the US, it was found out in the course of an investigation that Anatolia was a front company with no manufacturing facilities, and Ugur contracted with a company in Turkey to make the parts and then passed them off to DoD as if they had been manufactured in the US.

It eventually turned out that many of the parts were substandard and some could not be used at all.

"To enable the Turkish company to manufacture the parts, Ugur shared technical specifications and drawings of the parts with his co-conspirators overseas, some of whom were employees of the Turkish company," DoJ said.

"Ugur also provided his overseas co-conspirators with access to DoD's online library of technical specifications and drawings. Because of their military applications, many of these parts were designated as Defense Articles under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the United States Munitions List (USML). Thus, an export license was required to export the parts and related technical data (blueprints, specifications, etc.) from the United States to Turkey. Ugur knew of these restrictions, but nonetheless exported technical data controlled under the ITAR and USML to employees of the Turkish manufacturer without an export license."