Sold and shipped defense articles including night vision goggles, scopes and tubes through eBay accounts to buyers in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Japan
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A Former United States Army Soldier, who served in that capacity in Iraq and elsewhere, pleaded guilty today, in United States District Court, to violating the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and to the Illegal Export of Defense Article, announced United States Attorney John E. Kuhn, Jr.
Defendant Hunter Perry, age 33, of Louisville, Kentucky participated in a conspiracy to sell and export defense articles on the United States Munitions List (USML) to individuals located outside the United States. Specifically, beginning no later than May 2008, and continuing through September 2012, in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in Texas, and elsewhere, Perry and others, falsified customs documents to export night vision goggles, scopes, and tubes, to individuals outside of the United States. Perry was charged by federal information on Dec. 30, 2015.
Further, in order to accomplish the conspiracy, Perry falsified shipping documents to state that he was exporting equipment other than defense articles in order to escape detection of his shipments by the United States. Payments for the equipment were made through PayPal accounts associated with eBay and through bank wire transfers.
According to court records, Perry communicated with email and agreed to ship items and did ship items, without obtaining an export license issued by the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), to persons at addresses in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Japan.
Perry further pleaded guilty to four counts of violating the Illegal Export of Defense Article. On April 6, 2011, in Jefferson County, Perry exported a defense article, a D-760 night vision scope, to the United Kingdom, which was a defense article on the USML, without having first obtained from the Department of State a license for such export or written authorization for such export. Perry violated the Illegal Export of Defense Article again on Jan. 12, 2012, when he shipped, from Jefferson County, a defense article, a PAS-23 mini-thermal scope, and on Feb. 28, 2012, exported from the Jefferson County, to the United Kingdom, a defense article, that is a PVS-15 night vision binocular, and again on Aug. 1, 2012, Perry shipped, from Jefferson County, a defense article, a PAS-13 thermal scope to the United Kingdom.
Perry faced a combined sentence of no more than 83 years in prison, a term of supervised release and a fine of no more than $4,250,000.
Perry is scheduled for sentencing before Senior Judge Russell, in Louisville, on May 18, 2016.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bryan Calhoun and was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
