Balli Aviation breached Iran embargo

A British company, Balli Aviation, which is a unit of Balli Group plc where former Chancellor Lord Lamont is non-executive director, pleaded guilty to exporting Boeing 747 aircraft to Iran in contravention of a US trade embargo.

Balli Aviation, part of London based commodities trading and finance company Balli Group, agreed to pay $15m in fines.

At issue were six Boeing 747 passenger jets that the company’s subsidiaries and affiliates owned, three of which were leased to an Armenian airline that subsequently made them available to an Iranian private airline, Mahan Air, for flights in and out of Tehran.

Thomas Madigan of the US commerce department said: “The case agents worked through a complex corporate maze to obtain the facts and bring the violators to justice.” Balli Aviation said: “The US authorities viewed Mahan’s involvement and the manner of its access to the capacity of the aircraft to have breached US export rules.”

Lord Lamont

In an article of 6 February 2010 ("Balli Aviation breached Iran embargo") we reported that Balli Aviation Limited had pleaded guilty to exporting aircraft to Iran in contravention of a US trade embargo and incorrectly suggested that Lord Lamont was a non-executive Director of this company.

In fact, Lord Lamont is a non-executive director of Balli Group plc. Balli Group plc was not a party to any criminal proceedings. We regret this error.