UANI Continues GAO Campaign with Call for Hyundai Heavy to Pull Out of Iran

NEW YORK, Dec 14, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- On Wednesday (December 14, 2011), United against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called on Hyundai Heavy Industries (Hyundai Heavy) to end its business activities in Iran.

In August, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) identified Hyundai Heavy as one of two corporations that is expanding and upgrading Iran's refining capacity, a point of great concern given that Iran's energy sector is dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a well-known terrorist entity.

In a letter to Hyundai Heavy executives, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote:

Hyundai Heavy's ongoing and expanding business ... directly supports [Iran's] ability to fund an illegal nuclear weapons program and sponsor terrorist activities throughout the world and the United States, as demonstrated by the recent disclosure of an Iranian terror plot to assassinate a foreign official on American soil.

Hyundai Heavy has a long history in Iran, starting with its establishment of an office in Tehran in 1990. Within the past few years, Hyundai Heavy has constructed crude oil tankers for Iran valued at $2.4 billion. Currently, Hyundai Heavy is delivering processing equipment and a project generator to the Arak refinery. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Hyundai Heavy is one of only two corporations in the world that is expanding and upgrading Iran's refining capacity.

Hyundai Heavy's business operations in Iran's energy sector have attracted particular attention here in the United States because Hyundai Heavy also has extensive business dealings with the U.S. government. In the past 10 years, Hyundai Heavy and its subsidiaries Hyundai Oil Bank and Hyundai Corporation have received more than $350 million in federal contracts, mostly with the Department of Defense. (USASPENDING.gov) Hyundai Heavy has been singled out in the GAO report as one of only two firms involved in Iran's energy sector that also receives U.S. contracts because such activity is inconsistent with the provisions of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 ("CISADA").

As part of its GAO Campaign, UANI has called on South Korean conglomerate Daelim and Italian Energy Company Edison, also identified by the GAO, to end their business in Iran.

UANI has requested a reply from Hyundai Heavy by December 19, 2011.