A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted an Indian national, Siddabasappa Suresh, and an Indian company, Rajaram Engineering Corporation, for unlicensed exports of U.S.-origin export-controlled goods to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, an Indian government agency listed on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List. All exports to individuals and companies on the Entity List of U.S.-origin goods require a license.

Although the indictment has not yet been released, a Department of Justice press release describes in more detail the facts supporting the indictment as well as showing how BIS’s Sentinel Program played a role in the indictment. Under the Sentinel program, BIS officials travel to foreign countries to verify the end-use of items that BIS has licensed for export. According to the press release, the agents conducting the investigation learned that items licensed for export to Rajaram Engineering Corporation, one of the indicted defendants, were diverted to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. No license was obtained from BIS to permit those items to be delivered to the space center.

The indictment further reveals that Suresh and Rajaram conspired with an unnamed Indian subsidiary of an unnamed U.S. company to divert the goods to Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. The U.S. company appears to have been the manufacturer of the exported goods. It is not clear why the U.S. company and its subsidiary were not named, nor why the Indian subsidiary and co-conspirator was not indicted.

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