British businessman pleads guilty to selling missile parts to Iranians

A RETIRED British businessman who was extradited to the 
United States earlier this year has pleaded guilty at a court hearing to selling surface-to-air missile parts to Iran.

Christopher Tappin, 65, of Orpington, Kent, had pleaded not guilty but changed his plea at a hearing in El Paso, Texas, 
yesterday in an agreement with US prosecutors.

His guilty plea, to one count of the indictment, will call for a 33-month sentence which prosecutors have said they will not oppose him serving back in the UK.

US district judge David 
Briones will sentence Tappin on 9 January. Tappin is on bail after being extradited to the US in February.

The former president of the Kent Golf Union has previously denied attempting to sell 
batteries for surface-to-air missiles, which were to be shipped from the US to Tehran via the Netherlands, saying he was the victim of an FBI sting.

His wife Elaine said Tappin’s guilty plea yesterday is “the 
beginning of the end” of the family’s ordeal.

Mrs Tappin, 62, said her “overwhelming feeling remained one of anxiety and sadness” following her husband’s plea deal with US prosecutors. She said: “However, at last I dare hope that Chris will be back on home soil next year.

“It has been a very difficult time for us all and one that would have been infinitely harder had we not received such warm support from friends and strangers alike.

“For that I shall always remain extremely grateful.”

Ahead of yesterday’s hearing Mrs Tappin said that “however upsetting” a plea deal was, it marked the beginning of his “swift and safe return” to the UK.

Tappin’s lawyer, Dan Cogdell, said he expected him to serve several months in a US prison while authorities in Washington and the UK decide whether to return him home.

He was originally thought to have faced up to 35 years in jail if found guilty.

The case followed an investigation which started in 2005 when US agents asked technology providers about buyers who might have raised “red flags”.

Those customers were then approached by undercover companies set up by government agencies.

Two other men have already been sentenced.

Briton Robert Gibson, an associate of Tappin who agreed to co-operate, was jailed for 24 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to export defence 
articles.

Gibson provided customs agents with about 16,000 computer files and e-mails indicating that he and Tappin had long-standing commercial ties with Iranian customers.

American Robert Caldwell was also found guilty of aiding and abetting the illegal transport of defence articles and served 20 months in prison.

Plea bargaining is common in the US, with defendants often able to secure a more lenient sentence if they admit an offence and co-operate with prosecutors, rather than contest the charges in a trial.

Tappin’s UK lawyer, Karen Todner, who also represented Glasgow-born computer hacker Gary McKinnon in his successful ten-year fight against extradition, said 98 per cent of people who enter the US justice system agree a plea deal.