Christopher Harold Tappin was born on November 1946 and is a British businessman who is best known for selling weapons parts to Iran in violation of international sanctions and jailed for 33 months in January 2013.
12 Facts About Christopher Tappin
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Christopher Tappin maintains as the exporter he thought he was buying car batteries.
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In January 2012 Christopher Tappin lost his final appeal against extradition to the US under the Extradition Act 2003.
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Christopher Tappin's alleged co-conspirators were Robert Frederick Gibson who pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, and Robert Thomas Caldwell who was convicted at trial in 2007 and sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment.
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On 24 February 2012, Christopher Tappin surrendered himself to British authorities at Heathrow Airport Police Station, London.
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Christopher Tappin's UK-based solicitor, Karen Todner, said that due to the difficulty in getting witnesses from the UK to testify in the US, and other difficulties in mounting a defence, it was likely that Tappin would make some form of plea bargain with American prosecutors.
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Christopher Tappin was flown to El Paso, Texas via Houston on United Airlines flights and incarcerated in Otero County jail in New Mexico before his first court hearing.
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Christopher Tappin stated that she was astonished that what she described as a "preposterous request" from US officials could be taken seriously by British courts.
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On 1 November 2012, Christopher Tappin pleaded guilty in a federal court at El Paso, Texas, to selling weapons parts to Iran after reaching an agreement with prosecutors.
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On 9 January 2013, Christopher Tappin was given a 33-month prison sentence for arms dealing and fined US$11,357.
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On 28 September 2013, Christopher Tappin returned to the UK to serve his remaining 14-month sentence at the HM Wandsworth prison in South London.
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Christopher Tappin was paroled from prison in May 2014, on condition that he wore an electronic monitoring tag on his ankle.