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FRESNO, Calif. -- The CEO of a Bakersfield-based company has been fined and sentenced to 13 months in prison for conspiring to illegally export industrial valves to Iran.

A federal judge in Fresno sentenced GWC Valve International, Inc.'s CEO David Meador on Monday, also ordering him to pay a $10,000 fine. The company was fined $300,000, put on 5 years corporate probation.

Both the 52-year-old Meador and the company pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate U.S. economic sanctions, which prohibit virtually all trade and investment activities with Iran by U.S. citizens.

Authorities say between July 2005 and May 2008, GWC and Meador received almost $2.2 million in valve orders from Iranian customers, whose identity they concealed.

The judge also ordered the company to forfeit nearly $411,000.

Read more: //www.sacbee.com/2011/05/09/3614175/calif-ceo...