Florida diving expert Peter Sutis was charged on October 29 with trying to smuggle rebreather equipment into Libya without a US export license. (Image source: Shutterstock)
A Delray Beach, Florida, man was arrested by federal agents on October 29 on charges of conspiring to violate U.S. export control regulations by illegally shipping underwater rebreather equipment to Libya, the Department of Justice announced.
Peter Sutis, who formerly owned the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based diving equipment company Add Helium, is charged with smuggling, as well as attempting to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
According to the Department of Justice, Sotis and an unnamed Add Helium co-conspirator arranged to transfer the equipment to a freight forwarder for export to Libya in the summer of 2016, despite being “informed by a commercial agent that the items could not be exported while a license determination was pending.” The shipment was seized in Europe.
Rebreather equipment requires an export license from the Department of Commerce due to its potential military applications. The rebreather absorbs the carbon dioxide exhaled by the diver and recycles it to continue breathing.
Sutis, 55, appeared for the first time before US Judge John J. O’Sullivan in Miami on October 30. He is scheduled to be arraigned on November 13.
Sotis, a well-known advanced rebreather diver, was reportedly with Canadian documentary filmmaker Rob Stewart at the time of Stewart’s death while filming underwater along the Florida Keys in February 2017.
Allegations that Sotis violated U.S. export control regulations by arranging to ship advanced rebreather equipment to Libya without obtaining an export license from the Commerce Department became increasingly public after the Stuart sinking.
The Miami Herald reported on March 3, 2017, that Sotis was at the time the subject of a lawsuit by his former business partner, Sean Robotka, who allegedly warned Sotis that shipping rebreather equipment to Libya was prohibited without a U.S. export license.
