Earlier today, defendant Ramanan Mylvaganam pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“LTTE”), in connection with his attempt to procure sophisticated technology, including submarine design software and night vision equipment, for the LTTE. Mylvaganam faces a maximum term of 15 years’ imprisonment. Five of Mylvaganam’s co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses in connection with their support for the LTTE.
Mylvaganam’s guilty plea was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office.
As detailed in previously-filed court documents and the defendant’s plea allocution, in March 2006, Mylvaganam conspired to purchase approximately $22,000 worth of submarine design software for the LTTE from a United Kingdom company. Mylvaganam also attempted to purchase night vision equipment for the LTTE from a company in British Columbia, Canada. To deceive this company, Mylvaganam falsely told its representative that the night vision equipment was for “a fourth year design project we are doing at our university.” Mylvaganam also assisted a co-conspirator in purchasing computer equipment, electronics components and communications equipment for the LTTE. Mylvaganam, a Canadian citizen who previously lived in the United States, was extradited from Canada in 2009, following his indictment in the Eastern District of New York ....
