May 14--A Bolingbrook man was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for violating U.S. export laws by trying to ship a thermal imaging camera and other items to Pakistan without the required federal licenses.
Bilal Ahmed, 34, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of willfully violating export control regulations under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Prosecutors said that between June 2009 and March 2014, Ahmed shipped more than 200 items from his Schaumburg-based company to Pakistan, in many cases without obtaining the necessary license from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The items included a FLIR HRC-U thermal imaging camera, carbon fiber to make bulletproof vests and microwave laminate, according to Ahmed's plea agreement with prosecutors. Among the entities Ahmed's Trexim Corp. did business with was Pakistan's Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission.
In early 2014, Ahmed negotiated the purchase of the thermal imaging camera from a company in California for about $102,000, then tried to ship the item to a Pakistani company with the term NLR -- no license required -- handwritten on the waybill, prosecutors alleged. The item was seized by law enforcement before it left the U.S., according to the charges.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to about six years in prison.
"For a period of at least four years, (Ahmed) made it his business to export items from the United States to overseas locations, without obtaining the necessary licenses and approvals when required," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bethany Biesenthal wrote in a court filing.
But Ahmed's lawyer, Paul Flynn, asked for home incarceration, saying in a recent filing that the married father of three young children has no prior criminal record and since his arrest has worked as a limousine driver and an analyst for a Northbrook company to make ends meet.
"Mr. Ahmed admits that he made a serious error in judgment, but his motive was profit, not ideology," Flynn wrote. "He was running a one-man operation and did not take the time to set up adequate research and standards for his business."
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer ordered Ahmed to report to prison by July 17.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
