Professor Acquitted, But Sister Gets Convicted

Darrin Hanna, an assistant engineering professor at Oakland University and founder, president and owner of Technology Integration Group Services, Inc. (not to be confused with Technology Integration Group), was acquitted of all charges related to shipments of global mobile communications systems and global positioning systems to Iraq in violation of an embargo that was in place at the time.

Darrin Hanna's sister, Dawn Hanna (pictured above left), was in charge of international sales and marketing of her brother's company, and was purported to handle most of the international dealings while her brother was busy with his university job. Dawn Hanna was convicted of conspiracy, five illegal export counts, money laundering, and making false statements to investigators. She was acquitted on a single export violation count by the twelve-member jury. For conspiring to launder money, Dawn Hanna faces a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a $500,000 fine. She is to be sentenced on January 22, 2009.

The siblings were indicted on ten counts on July 25, 2007. The Iraq contract was estimated to be worth about $9.5 million, and involved a complicated network of companies and middlemen in Syria, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. It is estimated TIGS reaped over $1 million in profit from its part in brokering the sales.

One of the more interesting pieces of the trial, as described by Paul Egun of the Detroit News, occurred during jury deliberations, which spanned more than twenty-seven hours and five days. On the afternoon of the fourth day of deliberations, jurors sent U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani a note asking: "If Darrin knew it was illegal on July 17, 2007, would he still be in violation of the laws in question?"

Lawyers and Battani said they were puzzled by the question because the date had little relevance to any of the evidence presented at trial. After discussions with the lawyers, Battani sent back a note referring jurors to one of the jury instructions previously provided.

The jurors wrote back: "So should we ignore the dates in the indictment?"

Battani discussed the second note with the lawyers before returning a note stating that in order to convict either defendant, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each element of the offense occurred within the time frame set out in the indictment.

Apparently, the jury believed Darrin Hanna lacked the required mental state to be convicted.

Dawn Hanna's testimony that she believed she had acted legally and that at least some of the items were destined for Turkey appears to have been less persuasive to the jurors. Prosecutors had evidence of emails from Dawn Hanna talking about the goods going to Iraq.

IN OTHER NEWS: Despite National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) support for proposed license exception ICT, Clif Burns has this one right.