Two Americans and an Israeli have been charged in a federal indictment with conspiring to arrange the sale to Iran of three Israeli-owned U.S.-made military cargo planes. The indictment filed Thursday in U.S. District Court stemmed from an undercover investigation by the U.S. Customs Service. The sale, in which Iran was to buy the aircraft for $12 million each, never went through. The men, allegedly middlemen in the deal, were charged with conspiring to cover up the true destination of the C-130E transports by submitting to the State Department false papers that said a Brazilian company would buy them. Prosecutors said the proposed sale violated the Arms Export Control Act in which the State Department must approve all transfers abroad of American-made military goods. It prohibits the sale of such goods to countries such as Iran that have supported acts of international terrorism. Assistant U.S. Attorney Baruch Weiss said he could not say whether Israel knew the planes were to be sold to Iran. The Brazilian company, which was not identified, allegedly was to receive $500,000 for providing the false information to the State Department, the indictment said. The defendants named in the indictment were Joseph O'Toole, 58, of Claremont, Calif.; Richard St. Francis, 40, of Fairfield, Conn.; and Ari Ben Menashe, an Israeli. All three were first arrested in April when the terms of the deal were finalized with an undercover Customs agent. The case was then presented to a grand jury, which returned the indictment, charging each with one count of conspiracy. Menashe has been jailed without bail since his arrest. The others are free on bond. Weiss said he could not give more information about the defendants. St. Francis, however, was identified in court papers as a vice president of the Connecticut office of Vienna, Va.-based TransCapital Corp. If convicted of conspiracy, the men face up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
