Scavenger Manufacturing

South Africa

[email protected]

In January 2009, "[Scavenger Manufacturing] co-owned by a close aide to former apartheid president PW Botha helped Iran evade American sanctions by sneaking a James Bond-style speedboat [the Bradstone Challenger] through South Africa last year. Willem "Ters" Ehlers, a former navy officer and Botha's private secretary, is no stranger to apartheid-era embargo-busting. Now his company has shipped the speedboat to Iran, where the elite Revolutionary Guard is mass-producing it as an attack craft armed with torpedoes and missiles.... The transaction appears not to have broken United Nations sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme, but United States export restrictions on Iran were violated, as the speedboat contains controlled US "dual-use" components.... [S]hipping sources confirmed that [Scavenger Manufacturing] was the 'shipper' of the speedboat -- the formal term for the party responsible for the cargo -- as it transited South Africa." (Mail & Guardian, "How SA company oiled Iran's war machine," 9/24/2010) 

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On August 10, 2010, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps navy announced the "receipt of 12 speedboats equipped with missiles and torpedoes": "'[It] is a British ship that holds the world speed record. We got a copy [on which] we made some changes so it can launch missiles and torpedoes... in case of a conflict, we will be everywhere and nowhere to face the enemies.'" (Mail & Guardian, "How SA company oiled Iran's war machine," 9/24/2010)