MARESE McDONAGH THE SLIGO-BASED businessman who has been charged in the US with buying helicopter engines and other parts for export to Iran, was convicted by a Florida court in 1994 for exporting defence products to Iran.
Thomas McGuinn (72), of Cloonmull House, Drumcliffe, Co Sligo, a former director of Mac Aviation, was arrested when he arrived in the US in March 1994.
He pleaded guilty the following month and was sentenced to time served and three years’ supervision on release, and barred from receiving licences for the export from the US of defence articles.
In Washington on Tuesday an indictment was made public against Mr McGuinn (72) and Mac Aviation, which has a registered address at Mr McGuinn’s home. Charges have also been laid against Mr McGuinn’s son, Seán (40), and Mac Aviation’s commercial manager, Seán Byrne.
The US is to seek to have the men extradited to face trial for a range of charges including violating US laws on exports to Iran. In the normal course Ireland does not extradite people unless they are charged with something that is an offence under Irish law.
The indictment alleges that between August 2005 and July 2008, Mac Aviation, among other matters, purchased 17 helicopter engines from Rolls Royce for £4.27 million, for export to Iran.
When approached at his home, a few miles off the main Sligo/Bundoran road yesterday, Mr McGuinn indicated that he did not wish to say anything.
Mr McGuinn’s arrest and conviction in 1994 is understood to have been related to the export of night-vision goggles for helicopter pilots to Iran. Mr McGuinn spoke to the Middle East magazine in April 1993 about the goggles.
The Iranian authorities used a London company to order the goggles with Mac Aviation, which in turn contacted a firm in Canada that purchased the goggles for $50,000 from a firm in Arizona, according to the magazine.
The goggles were exported to Mac Aviation, which in turn exported the equipment to the London company so it could be forwarded to Iran. However the equipment was seized by British customs.
The article said Mac Aviation had a licence from the Irish Government to export the equipment. Thomas McGuinn was quoted in the article as saying he had “no idea why the stuff was blocked” and that he would “never get involved without an export licence”.
The latest annual return on file for Mac Aviation is for the year to the end of March 2007, and shows the company is owned equally by Thomas and Josephine McGuinn, of Cloonmull House, Drumcliffe, Co Sligo.
The latest accounts on file are for the year to the end of March 2007 and show the company at that point had accumulated profits and reserves of €550,162. Pre-tax profits were €84,442.
The company had €1.77 million in the bank, almost three times the figure at the previous year’s end, and had sales during the year of €2.92 million, again almost three times the previous year’s figure. Travel expenses during the year were €45,652, up from €2,740 the previous year.