A U.S.-built business jet carries American export controls regardless of country of registry—the premise behind a federal civil forfeiture action against a China-registered 2012 Gulfstream G550 that spent six days in Tehran in late 2024.
Federal prosecutors in the Central District of California filed the in rem complaint on October 28 against the airplane, registered in China as B-8259 to Beijing-based Deer Jet. Agents seized the jet in Anchorage, Alaska, on May 24 under a federal warrant, roughly 17 months after the flight at issue.
The G550 flew from Beijing to Tehran on Dec. 13, 2024, and stayed until December 19, according to the complaint. Because the airframe was manufactured in the U.S., moving it from China to Iran constituted a re-export, requiring a Commerce Department license that prosecutors said the Bureau of Industry and Security never issued. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) General License J-1 allows certain aircraft to make temporary trips in Iran, but caps them at 72 hours–one of nine conditions attached to the authorization.
“OFAC did not issue a license allowing the defendant aircraft to remain in Iran for over 72 hours,” the complaint states. The filing classifies the airplane under ECCN 9A991, controlled for anti-terrorism purposes, for which no license exceptions are available for Iran. Forfeiture is sought under the Export Control Reform Act at 50 U.S.C. § 4820(j).
The jet is in FBI custody in the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint carries no criminal charges, and Deer Jet may contest the action.
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