HARRISBURG, Pa. — The owner of a Pennsylvania company that makes steel-processing equipment has been sentenced to 12 months on probation under a plea deal for conspiring to illegally sell an $800,000 machine to an Iranian firm.
Helmut Oertmann is CEO and owner of Hetran Inc., of Orwigsburg. U.S District Court Judge Yvette Kane sentenced him Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Oertmann falsified paperwork to get around a U.S. trade embargo and deliver a machine to be used in Iran for the production of high-grade steel.
Kane also sentenced his company to the fines already imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce: $837,500 cash, $500,000 of which was suspended.
Charges also were filed against three Iranian nationals and two Iranian firms.
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