4 Tamil-Americans plead guilty in conspiring to support LTTE

New York, Jun 10 (PTI) Four Tamil-Americans, who have
been accused of providing material support - including
purchase of arms and ammunition - to the Tigers, have pleaded
guilty in a court here.

"Just weeks after the LTTE's leaders in Sri Lanka were
defeated in that country, the leader of the LTTE in the United
States and other supporters have been brought to justice,"
said US Attorney Benton J Campbell.

The four accused are -- Karunakaran Kandasamy also
known as Karuna; Pratheepan Thavaraja also known as Raja
Pratheepan, Thambi Sampras and Steeban; Murugesu
Vinayagamoorthy also known as Dr Moorthy and Vinayagamoorthy
Murugesu; and Vijayshanthar Patpanathan also known as Chandru.

"The defendants were convicted for their involvement
in efforts to raise millions of dollars and acquire arms and
technology for use by the LTTE," Campbell said.

The guilty plea proceedings were held before
Chief United States District Judge Raymond Dearie. Kandasamy
and Pratheepan face a 20-year maximum statutory sentence,
while Vinayagamoorthy and Patpanathan face a 15-year maximum
statutory sentence.

Justice Department said Kandasamy was the director of
the American branch of the LTTE, which operated through
charitable front organisations, including the Tamil
Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).

As its director, he oversaw and directed the LTTE's
various activities in the US, including raising millions of
dollars for the LTTE and laundering it through the TRO.

Defendant Vijayshanthar Patpanathan assisted Kandasamy
and others in these fund raising and money laundering
activities. Thavaraja was a senior procurement agent for the
LTTE, involved in the purchase of improvised explosive
devices, missiles, machine guns, radar, and other equipment
from countries around the world, including the US.

A single spreadsheet of "priority" items to purchase,
which was found in Pratheepan's laptop computer, totaled USD
20 million in arms and equipment.

It included, among other things, six "25mm Anti
Aircraft Gun[s]" at USD 160,000 each, six "30 mm Twin Barrel
Mounted Naval Gun[s] Type 69 (with base)" at USD 30,000 each,
thousands of automatic rifles, millions of rounds of
ammunition, grenade launchers, 50 tons of C4 explosive, five
tons of "Phlegmatized RDX" explosive, 50 tons of "TNT - based
on Chinese specification," and 50 tons of Tritonal explosive.

Pratheepan and defendant Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy were
also involved in the attempted bribery of purported State
Department officials to remove the LTTE from the list of
designated foreign terrorist organisations.

Vinayagamoorthy also participated in laundering LTTE
money through a Swiss bank account to fund a US Congressman's
trip to LTTE-controlled territory in Sri Lanka, the Justice
Department said in a release. PTI