Jefferson Reporter

Ray Hunt, also known by several aliases including Abdolrahman Hantoosh, Rahman Hantoosh, and Rahman Natooshas, has been sentenced to five years in prison for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The 71-year-old from Owens Cross Roads, Alabama pleaded guilty in July 2024 to conspiring to export U.S.-origin goods to Iran, contravening U.S. trade sanctions.

Court documents reveal that Hunt registered Vega Tools, LLC with the Alabama Secretary of State in May 2014 as a business dealing in "the purchase/resale of equipment for the energy sector." Operating from Madison County, Alabama, Hunt engaged with two Iranian companies based in Tehran from at least 2015 until his arrest in November 2022. His activities involved illegally exporting industrial equipment made in the U.S. for use in Iran’s oil, gas, and petrochemical sectors.

To evade detection by U.S. authorities, Hunt used deceptive methods such as employing third-party transshipment companies located in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), routing payments through UAE banks, and misrepresenting the value of exports to shipping firms. He falsely informed suppliers and shippers that items were intended for end-users in Turkey and UAE while knowing they were meant for Iran. Additionally, he misled U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers about his business operations following a March 2020 trip to Iran.

The sentencing was announced by Sue Bai of the Justice Department's National Security Division; U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama; Acting Assistant Secretary John Sonderman of the Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security; and FBI Assistant Director Kevin Vorndran of the Counterintelligence Division.

The Bureau of Industry and Security conducted the investigation with assistance from the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan Cross and Henry Cornelius for the Northern District of Alabama alongside Trial Attorneys Emma Ellenrieder and Adam Barry from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted this case.