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+--- Thread: American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why (/thread-12453.html)
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Magda Hassan - 19-04-2014
Iran Gets an Unlikely Visitor, an American Plane, but No One Seems to Know Why
By MICHAEL CORKERY, JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and THOMAS ERDBRINKAPRIL 17, 2014
Photo
![[Image: IRAN-master675.jpg]](http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/18/world/IRAN/IRAN-master675.jpg)
Despite complex trade rules against doing business with Iran, a corporate jet with a small American flag turned up in Tehran. Credit Thomas Erdbrink/The New York Times
President Obama has warned that Iran is not open for business, even as the United States has loosened some of its punishing economic sanctions as part of an interim nuclear pact.
Yet on Tuesday morning, Iran had an unlikely visitor: a plane, owned by the Bank of Utah, a community bank in Ogden that has 13 branches throughout the state. Bearing a small American flag on its tail, the aircraft was parked in a highly visible section of Mehrabad Airport in Tehran.
But from there, the story surrounding the plane, and why it was in Iran where all but a few United States and European business activities are prohibited grows more mysterious.
While federal aviation records show the plane is held in a trust by the Bank of Utah, Brett King, one of its executives in Salt Lake City, said, "We have no idea why that plane was at that airport."
He said that the Bank of Utah acted as a trustee for investors who have a financial stake in the plane and that the bank was investigating further.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had no information about the investors in the aircraft or who was operating it. Officials waiting at the gangway at Mehrabad Airport said only that the aircraft was "V.I.P."
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the federal government's primary enforcer of sanctions against Iran, declined to comment on the plane's presence there. Under United States law, any American aircraft would usually need prior approval from the department to go to Iran without violating a complicated patchwork of rules governing trade.
In the case of this particular aircraft, powered by engines made by General Electric, the Commerce Department typically would have to grant its own clearance for American-made parts to touch down on Iranian soil.
Iranian officials also declined to comment on the purpose of the plane's visit or passengers' identities. A spokesman for Iran's United Nations mission in New York, Hamid Babaei, said: "We don't have any information in this regard. I refer you to the owner."
The tracking of planes has become a kind of global sport, as largely amateur photographers post thousands of images showing arrivals and departures in their attempts to chronicle flight paths. In the case of this plane, for example, one spotter spied it leaving an airport in Zurich around the time of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, held in January. Another photographer tracked the plane, identified by its call letters N604EP on the tail engines, departing a London-area airport for Ghana last October.
But this week's spotting by a New York Times reporter in Tehran carries particular intrigue because it involves Iran, a country still effectively shunned by the global financial system.
Even some former federal officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the very presence of an American-flagged aircraft parked in broad daylight suggested its flight had been approved as part of a legitimate business trip. What is more, they said, the easily identifiable plane was not likely to be part of a covert diplomatic mission.
The secrecy surrounding the plane is compounded by federal aviation regulations that can make it virtually impossible to determine who was flying it.
The private plane, like thousands of similar ones, is owned through a trust a complex legal structure often established to help foreign individuals or corporations invest in planes that can fly freely within the United States. Aside from that benefit, the structure enables investors and operators to remain largely anonymous to the public. The trustee in this case, the Bank of Utah is the sole entity recorded as owner in a vast database maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Bank of Utah is listed as a trustee for 1,169 aircraft, ranging from Boeing 747s to single-engine Cessnas, according to a review by The New York Times of the database. The Bank of Utah acts as a trustee for more planes than just about any other bank, the review shows.
Mr. King, who helps run the bank's trust services business, said the bank had no "operational control" or "financial exposure" to any of the planes.
He said he was not allowed to disclose the identity of the plane's investors. "As fiduciary, we must keep information confidential when it comes to the beneficiary," Mr. King said.
While the trusts allow celebrities and corporate executives to travel discreetly, they also help obscure who is operating vast fleets of aircraft and why.
The shadowy role of American banks in private aircraft ownership has grown even as financial regulators work to shine a light on Wall Street's activities, a legacy of the 2008 financial crisis.
Bank dealings with Iran in particular are subject to extraordinary scrutiny by the United States government, part of a broader crackdown on the flow of money to foreign countries and individuals that American officials say is tied to terrorism.
The British bank HSBC, for example, reached a record $1.92 billion settlement with federal authorities in 2012 to resolve accusations that it funneled billions of dollars on behalf of Iran and enabled Mexican drug cartels to move tainted money through its United States subsidiaries.
Even before the current sanctions, American aircraft rarely landed in the country. The animosity between the two countries has grown so intense that even the occasional emergency landing by a United States commercial airliner sets off a flurry of speculative news reports.
For his part, Mr. King said Thursday in an interview that he was trying to get to the bottom of the aircraft's presence in Tehran. "The Bank of Utah is very conservative, and located in the conservative state of Utah," he said. "If there is any hint of illegal activity, we are going to find out and see whether we need to resign" as trustee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/middleeast/mystery-shrouds-american-plane-at-tehran-airport.html?src=me
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Drew Phipps - 19-04-2014
Ogden Utah has a rather large IRS office...
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Magda Hassan - 19-04-2014
Ah, those Mormans sure are thrifty businessmen.
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Magda Hassan - 20-04-2014
Utah plane in Iran: Mystery solved
Utah plane in Iran: A plane owned by the Bank of Utah carried an African business delegation to Iran. The plane's presence in Iran raises questions about whether the Utah bank has violated US sanctions on Iran.
By Mehrdad Balali, Reuters / April 19, 2014
The aircraft is owned by the Bank of Utah but leased to the government of Ghana.
Marie-Lan Nguyen
Iran says that a plane which landed in Tehran airport flying the American flag was leased to Ghana's presidential office and carrying a business delegation from the African nation
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The New York Times reported on Thursday that a plane owned by the Bank of Utah was parked in Mehrabad Airport in Tehran on Tuesday.
Its presence was noteworthy as the United States and Iran have been at loggerheads for decades and the Islamic Republic is subject to certain economic sanctions.
State news agency IRNA on Friday night quoted Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying that the plane was transporting the brother of Ghana's president and a mining delegation.
"The plane is on lease to Ghana's presidential office, and its passengers were Ghanaian senior officials led by the president's brother. None of its crew members were American," Afkham was quoted as saying.
RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Iran? Take our quiz to find out.
The Ghanaian delegation was in Iran to follow up on agreements reached between the two countries two years ago, she said, adding that it departed on Thursday.
The New York Times said it had reviewed a confidential document which showed that "the plane is held in a trust by the Bank of Utah and on behalf of the mining company, Engineers and Planners, which is based in Accra".
It quoted a Bank of Utah executive, Brett King, as saying the company had no idea why the plane was at the airport and it was investigating further.
There was no immediate comment from Ghanian officials.
Iran and world powers are engaged in negotiations over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. Some international sanctions imposed over its programme have been eased temporarily after a deal was reached last year. Washington has said the lifting of sanctions can only happen "in total" after a comprehensive deal is reached.
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepped up a to expand ties with African countries, though his campaign yielded little in terms of trade and votes at the United Nations against sanctions targeting its nuclear program.
The Associated Press reports:
Scott Parkinson, senior vice president for marketing and communication with the Ogden-based bank, said the financial institution is aware of the plane in Iran but is not investigating at this point.
"As far as the legality of that, flying into that country, that's really between the beneficiary and the Department of State, and maybe the FAA," Parkinson said. "Not us."
But the practice has drawn scrutiny from the federal government recently.
A government watchdog warned last June and again in January that non-U.S. citizens have registered 5,600 planes with the Federal Aviation Administration through trustees, concealing the owners' identities.
Under FAA regulations, this can be done by the owner creating an agreement to transfer the plane's title to a trustee that is a U.S. citizen. The trustee then registers the plane. The agreements provide little information on the identity of the owner or who uses the plane, according to a memorandum by the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General.
In 47 registrations closely examined by the inspector general, the non-U.S. citizen who created the trust had complete authority to remove the trustee, and thus control over the plane.
Just five trustees accounted for 3,283 of the planes registered on behalf of non-U.S. citizens, the memorandum said. One trustee required the inspector general to obtain a subpoena before complying with a request for information.
Parkinson stressed that his bank performs due diligence that is required by regulators in terms of aircraft ownership. "Our trust agreements are very clearly outlined that we don't allow any illegal activity, obviously, with these assets."
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0419/Utah-plane-in-Iran-Mystery-solved
"As far as the legality of that, flying into that country, that's really between the beneficiary and the Department of State, and maybe the FAA," Parkinson said. "Not us."
But the practice has drawn scrutiny from the federal government recently.
A government watchdog warned last June and again in January that non-U.S. citizens have registered 5,600 planes with the Federal Aviation Administration through trustees, concealing the owners' identities.
Under FAA regulations, this can be done by the owner creating an agreement to transfer the plane's title to a trustee that is a U.S. citizen. The trustee then registers the plane. The agreements provide little information on the identity of the owner or who uses the plane, according to a memorandum by the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General.
In 47 registrations closely examined by the inspector general, the non-U.S. citizen who created the trust had complete authority to remove the trustee, and thus control over the plane.
Just five trustees accounted for 3,283 of the planes registered on behalf of non-U.S. citizens, the memorandum said. One trustee required the inspector general to obtain a subpoena before complying with a request for information.
Parkinson stressed that his bank performs due diligence that is required by regulators in terms of aircraft ownership. "Our trust agreements are very clearly outlined that we don't allow any illegal activity, obviously, with these assets."
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0419/Utah-plane-in-Iran-Mystery-solved
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Drew Phipps - 20-04-2014
How would a trustee that has no control over the airplane, nor even any real time awareness where the plane is, be said to not "allow" illegal activity, I wonder?
American Plane In Iran But No One Seems To Know Why - Peter Lemkin - 20-04-2014
Mormons more often than ANY OTHER religious group in the USA [by %] are in the Intelligence apparatus.....just something to consider. I have elsewhere on this forum explained why this is likely so.:
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tampfeet::