Two Waltham residents were indicted on Wednesday for selling electronic equipment to a Syria-based company in connection with explosives used against American forces in the Middle East, according to a March 22 Wicked Local article. Also indicted were the residents’ Waltham-based business, Top Tech US Inc. and Amir Katranji, the Syrian national who manages EKT Electronics, the company that bought the electronics.

Waltham residents Anni Beurklian and Antoine Ajaka are both from Lebanon; Beurklian is a naturalized U.S. citizen, while Ajaka, her husband, is a lawful permanent resident, according to the same article. Together, they ran Top Tech US Inc. from their Waltham home, in which they “procured” electronic and computer equipment in the U.S. and then sold them overseas in Lebanon and Syria.

However, when the pair sold electronics to EKT, they violated the U.S. Department of Commerce’s policy that no U.S. citizen or resident is “permitted to export U.S. goods to EKT without first obtaining an export license,” the Wicked Local article explained. The U.S. government has linked EKT to “acquisition and/or development of improvised explosive devices … used against U.S. and Coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,” it added.

According to the indictment,  the couple falsified and deleted paperwork and records and “undervalued goods being shipped overseas” to conceal their business with EKT, the article explained. The charges in the indictment include “conspiracy to violate U.S. export laws and regulations, conspiracy to defraud the United States, smuggling U.S. goods out of the United States, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice.”

Beurklian and Ajaka have not been in Waltham since January, when they fled the country during plea negotiations with the U.S. government.

—Jocelyn Gould