Truly Wierd

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Times Colonist (Victoria)                   Thursday, April 4,
2002

Canadian faces life in prison for selling goods to Cuba

Philadelphia (CP) -- A Canadian businessman charged with
violating the 1960
U.S. trade embargo against Cuba was found guilty of selling goods
through
foreign middlemen by a jury on Wednesday.

James Sabzali, 42, becomes the first Canadian to be convicted of
trading
with Cuba, something that is legal in Canada but could send him
to prison in
the United States.

"I'm shocked," said Sabzali, who fully co-operated with the
five-year
investigation. "It doesn't make any sense."

"It's unbelievable," added Sharon Moss, Sabzali's Canadian wife,
who was
clearly shaken by the verdict.

In the unprecedented case widely regarded as a challenge to
Canadian
sovereignty, Sabzali was found guilty of a total of 21 counts --
20 counts
of violating the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act and one count of

conspiracy.

Seven of the 21 charges relate to actions taken on Canadian soil.
Canadian
law makes it illegal to comply with the U.S. embargo. Sabzali
faces up to
life in prison and fines of more than $19 million US for sales of

water-purification supplies on behalf of international
subsidiaries of the
Pennsylvania-based BroTech Corp. He is expected to be sentenced
June 28.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has criticized as
"objectionable and
unacceptable" the fact that a Canadian citizen was charged in the
United
States for acts committed in Canada that are not crimes in
Canada. In fact,
when he was operating from Canada, Sabzali was bound by the
Canadian Foreign
Extraterritorial Measures Act not to comply with the U.S. embargo
against
Cuba, his lawyers said.

According to prosecutors, BroTech shipped the chemicals to
Canadian and
Mexican companies, which forwarded them to Cuba.

The chemicals, called ion exchange resins, are used by the
petroleum, sugar
and pharmaceutical industries, among others.

Sabzali is one of three executives found guilty in the case.

Also convicted were Brotech owners Donald B. Brodie, 54, of Bryn
Mawr and
his brother Stefan E. Brodie, 58, of Philadelphia.

All were convicted of one count of conspiring to violate the
embargo.

The corporation was convicted of 45 specific counts of trading
with the
enemy; Sabzali of 21 counts, Donald Brodie of 34 counts and
Stefan Brodie of
one count.

While the jury convicted Sabzali for sales made from Canada to
Cuba, it
found him not guilty on all charges up to March 1995, during his
employment
by Purolite International, a Canadian company.

Despite the mixed results, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Poluka
said,
"We're very happy with the verdict."

But the defendants planned to challenge what they considered to
be
insufficient evidence, defence lawyer Robert Welsh said. "I can
say we will
be pursuing an appeal," he said, declining to comment further.

The former Hamilton salesman along with Donald Brodie and the
corporation
itself were originally charged with 76 counts of violating the
1919 U.S.
Trading with the Enemy Act and one count of conspiracy. Stefan
Brodie was
charged solely with conspiracy.

Almost half of those original charges relate to Sabzali's
activities while
he was living in Canada. Sabzali resided in Hamilton from 1992 to
1996,
frequently visiting Cuba, before moving to BroTech's
Philadelphia-area head
office in 1996.

The jury's decision highlighted Sabzali's April 1995 appointment
as
marketing director for Brotech, rather than his relocation to the
United
States.

At the crux of the jury's verdict was Sabzali's approval of
reimbursements
to Canadian salesman Claude Gauthier for travel expenses "to,
from and
within Cuba," while acting as Brotech's marketing director.

"The jury looked carefully at the evidence and worked hard," said
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Joseph Poluka. "There is nothing willy-nilly about
this
verdict."

The case had seen an earlier clash between the U.S. and Canadian
governments
over U.S. efforts to indict Gauthier, Sabzali's replacement.
Gauthier
reportedly never set foot in the United States.

Following protests by the Department of Foreign Affairs and
International
Trade in Ottawa, then U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright
issued a
statement withdrawing the attempted indictment of Gauthier.

In Sabzali's case, both sides agreed that chemicals used to
purify and
soften water made their way to Cuba from plants owned, directly
or
indirectly, by BroTech.

However, they disagreed on whether the sales were designed to
violate the
ban begun by the U.S. in 1960, a year after Fidel Castro assumed
power in
Cuba.





--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx