Azeri Press Agency, Azerbaijan
June 23 2007

Armenian avaricious arms dealer goes on trial in New York

[ 23 Jun 2007 11:53 ]

An Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell Russian-made
military weapons to an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer went on
trial.
Artur Solomonyan, 28, from Armenia, and five others were in Manhattan
federal court accused of agreeing to sell rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and other weapons
acquired in Armenia and Chechnya in the former Soviet Union.

In opening arguments, prosecutor David Massey that said between 2003
and 2005, Solomonyan and Spies, who he said were the ringleaders, had
sold one machine gun and seven assault rifles to an informant, and
showed him photos of missiles and other weapons that they said were
also for sale.
"All these weapons were about money, plain and simple," said Massey,
saying he was greedy for a fast buck.
Solomonyan lawyer Seth Ginsberg said his client knew nothing about
importing weapons when a government informant dangled the possibility
of getting a green card to stay in the United States if he could
arrange some weapons sales.
He said Solomonyan had no intention of importing weapons but just
wanted to string along the informant long enough to get a green card.
He said his client produced an outdated price list for weapons as a
way to keep the informant working on his green card.
The trial was delayed once before when the government informant,
Kelly Davis, was hospitalized with stomach and chest pains and put on
suicide watch.
Massey said the case began when one of the defendants approached
Davis to ask about the sale of machine guns.
The prosecutor said Davis reported the offer to law enforcement,
which initiated an investigation as Davis began making recordings,
generating hundreds of pages of reports.
Solomonyan was charged with arms trafficking conspiracy, firearms
trafficking conspiracy, interstate firearms trafficking and illegal
transfer and possession of a machine gun in March 2005. If convicted,
some defendants could face up to life in prison. /APA /