The Case of the 100 Jeeps

In the seven years since Washington put a ban on the sale of war-useful materials to Iron Curtain countries, there has been many an attempt to evade the embargo, chiefly by foreign firms. Last week Washington revealed the first case involving a major U.S. firm: the Commerce Department had caught Willys-Overland Export Corp. in a deal that landed 100 of its jeeps behind the Iron Curtain.

It began two years ago when the trading firm of Les Fils de Basile Obegi of Syria placed an order with a New York export house for 100 four-wheel-drive jeeps (which cannot legally be exported to Iron Curtain countries). The jeeps' purported destination was Beirut, where a merchant named Jean Maghamez supposedly wanted them for local farmers. Willys-Overland Export Corp. of Toledo cabled its Syrian dealer, Levant Motors, to investigate the $150,000 order. Levant Motors discovered that Consignee Ma-ghamez was just a front man, and replied that it suspected Les Fils de Basile Obegi was planning to reexport the jeeps to Rumania. The auto firm, however, said nothing to the Commerce Department.

On Oct. 30, 1953 the jeeps arrived in Beirut and less than a week later, they were aboard an Italian freighter bound for Constanta, Rumania. One of the widespread army of Commerce Department informers spotted the 100 crates being transshipped and informed the U.S. Embassy, which wired Washington.

Last week the Bureau of Foreign Commerce suspended Willys-Overland Export Corp. from export privileges for two months, then commuted the sentence to probation for six months.

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