Clark vice president Robert E Quinn is one of two employees of the Lexington-based company indicted for allegedly violating a US trade embargo on Iran. (Forkliftaction.com News #191)

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported a federal grand jury in Washington DC also indicted Clark government/national accounts parts sales representative Michael H Holland and Mohammad A Sharbaf, of Sepahan Lifter Co, Iran, for allegedly violating the embargo by shipping forklift parts to Iran.

The court record contained excerpts from emails that indicated unnamed Clark executives in Korea and the US knew about the alleged conspiracy and refused to participate.

"We are a new Clark and we must seize all the parts sales opportunities we can," Clark vice president Robert E Quinn said in a 2003 email after a Clark executive in Korea balked at helping ship parts to Iran.

Quinn, who was first charged with violating the embargo in a criminal complaint filed in December, was indicted on one count of conspiracy and five counts of violating the embargo.

Quinn and Holland entered not guilty pleas on May 2 in Washington. No trial date has been set, according to court records.

If convicted, each defendant could be fined up to USD250,000 and sentenced to as much as 10 years in prison on each count.

Shipments of goods to Iran are illegal under the trade embargo imposed in 1979 after the US Embassy in Tehran was seized and its occupants held hostage for 444 days.

The 20-page indictment also named two co-conspirators - one in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and one in Iran - who were not indicted.