If you are annoyed by co-workers who spend the day on eBay and still get paid, you may be even more annoyed to find out that the U.S. government actually pays federal agents on purpose to hang out on eBay and look for export violators. James Pendzich, who had only a junior college degree and no prior criminal history, was targeted by federal agents because his eBay page offered “worldwide” shipment of body armor. The ICE agents then set up a sting and had Pendzich ship protective inserts to undercover agents in Colombia.

Pendzich, of course, had little choice but to plead guilty to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act (“AECA”). An article that appeared last week in the Knoxville News reported on the sentencing hearing at which the judge gave Pendzich a 46-month sentence for the illegal exports.

The applicable federal sentencing guideline for an AECA violation allows the judge to take into account national security considerations in determining the appropriate sentence. The defense argued that since the plates were shipped to federal agents there had been no adverse impact on national security. The prosecution reached deep into its bag of hypotheticals and argued:

Although not intended by the defendant, had he been successful, the bulletproof vests and body armor he attempted to export could possibly have ended up in the hands of narco-terrorists.

And if the plates had been made of highly-enriched uranium the narcos could have built and exploded a nuclear bomb. Unfortunately for Pendzich, the sentencing judge bought this coulda-shoulda-woulda line of argumentation and threw the book at him.

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