JORDAN BLUE LANTERN:VERIFYING BONA FIDES OF

UNCLAS AMMAN 000216 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR PM/DTCC BLUE LANTERN COORDINATOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETTC KOMC JO SUBJECT: JORDAN BLUE LANTERN:VERIFYING BONA FIDES OF REGISTERED BROKER SAMIR AYOUB(CASE NUMBER K-2282) REF: A. A) WILSON-JOUBERT-LIN EMAIL NOV 09 ¶B. B) 09 STATE 99534 ¶1. (SBU) Economic Section and Foreign Commercial Service (FCS) LESs conducted initial/preliminary database searches on this firm through Government of Jordan (Ministry of Industry and Trade(MoIT)) on-line records and found no pertinent information. ¶2. (SBU) Blue Lantern officer performed a no-notice visit to Vision Engineering on December 2, 2009, to determine the location of the office. Blue Lantern officer returned, accompanied by LES assistant, on December 14, 2009, and met with Waleed Ayoub, who identified himself as Managing Director, and Business Development Manager, Emad Shugran. Ayoub said the company group had three companies, operated by him and his two brothers, with Samir, recently retired as CEO, now residing in the U.K. He said another brother is a resident of the U.S. and currently Jordanian Honorary Consul in San Francisco, California. ¶3. (SBU) Ayoub described how his firm procures and sells defense and security related equipment, primarily, but not exclusively, communications devises, to the Government of Jordan. He explained that his firm is family-owned, and part of three-company family business group, Ardico (WWW.ARDICO.JO) consisting of Vision Engineering Group, Ardico itself (representing Unisys Corporation in Jordan), and their Technical Applications Contracting Group. He reported that his firm never takes physical custody of any product, in order to avoid customs duties and taxes, however they arrange for shipment and delivery direct to the receiving entity. ¶4. (SBU) He reported they initially registered as brokers in order to provide L3 Corporation (www.l-3com.com) manufactured self-destruct armament fuses to the GoJ, citing a four-five year relationship they had with L3, and several meetings they arranged between L3 and GoJ. However that arrangement eventually collapsed, apparently in favor of a competitor, RCS (septel). Ayoub reported that Vision is currently engaged in providing secure radio units (Sepura Corp, U.K.) to the GoJ police, military, and Royal Court guard forces. ¶5. (SBU) Ayoub claims to be have been acting as day-to-day manager of the firm since 2005. Initially he seemed just a bit tentative and uncomfortable, repeatedly referring to documents or searching through files in order to respond to fairly basic questions. However this could have been nervousness conversing in English, or that as an engineer he was much more comfortable discussing technical aspects, rather than business issues, which was where Emboff was focused. ¶6. (SBU) Like many of the other firms in this line of work, Vision Engineering appears to act as an in-country representative of western firms, providing military or security equipment to Government of Jordan (GoJ) agencies. Vision reports they deal almost exclusively with the Government of Jordan and, due to customs fees and taxes, claim never to take physical possession of any items they broker; rather they expedite the contracts to deliver the products to the GoJ officials, then facilitate user training and provide follow-on maintenance and support. ¶7. (SBU) Conclusion. Based on initial impressions the Ayoub family seems established and well-connected within the upper levels of the GoJ. Their company appears to be how they represent it, and legitimately involved in the business they report to be engaged in. ¶8. (U) Corrected address/contact information for this firm is: - SAMIR AYOUB, CHAIRMAN (EMERITUS) - WALID AYOUB, GENERAL MANAGER - VISION ENGINEERING GROUP - 1ST FLOOR, ABDALLAT CENTER BLDG - 11 ABB STREET (11 THAQAFEH STREET) - (The street name changed some time ago to Thaqafeh - Street, however many local residents still use the - original name, Abb Street) - SHMEISANI, P.O. BOX 2420 - AMMAN - JORDAN 11181 - TEL: 962-6-568-5160 - FAX: 962-6-568-5161 Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://diplopedia.state.sgov.gov/index.php?ti tle=Embassy Amman Beecroft