Christopher Tappin

On 9 January 2013, Tappin was given a 33-month prison sentence for arms dealing and fined US$11,357 (£7,095).

Between 8 March to 30 September 2013 he served his sentence at Federal Correctional Complex, Allenwood in Pennsylvania (as Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoner #90763-280) until his repatriation to HM Wandsworth.

On 28 September 2013, Tappin returned to the UK to serve his remaining 14-month sentence at the HM Wandsworth prison in South London. He was subsequently paroled from prison in May 2014, on condition that he wore an electronic monitoring tag on his ankle.

On 24 February 2012, Tappin surrendered himself to British authorities at Heathrow Airport Police Station, London. Shortly afterwards he was handed over to US Marshals to be flown to the United States. His 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. A few minutes before entering Heathrow Airport Police Station, Tappin spoke with news reporters, stating that:

On 5 March, Judge Robert Castaneda ruled that Tappin must remain in custody after prosecutors asked that he be detained for the duration of the proceedings because he "posed a flight risk". Assistant US attorney Greg McDonald told the court that "the risk is not that he'll punch somebody in the face, but through the use of a computer and the knowledge he has, he might pose a danger to the community." On 8 March, Karen Todner (Tappin's solicitor in the UK) urged the British government to intervene over the bail refusal. Eventually, on 25 April 2012, Tappin was bailed on condition that he wore an electronic tracking tag at all times. Additionally, his ability to travel was restricted to within two Texas counties as well as the border city of El Paso for court appearances. After being released on bail, Tappin told the BBC that he planned to vigorously defend himself against the allegations, stating that:

Tappin's removal to the United States to stand trial has been criticised by the Leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage MEP, who sent an open letter to Theresa May about the issue and also set up an ePetition for opponents of Tappin's extradition to sign. The ePetition states: "In the light of the Chris Tappin case, demands that David Cameron debates the US-UK extradition treaty with President Obama, with a view to amending it". The requested debate did take place on 14 March 2012 but it remains to be seen whether it will produce any results.

On 1 November 2012, Tappin pleaded guilty in a federal court at El Paso, Texas, to selling weapons parts to Iran after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. Prosecutors said they would raise no objection to his serving the sentence in the UK.

A federal arrest warrant for Tappin was first issued by a grand jury in Texas in 2007. In January 2012 Tappin lost his final appeal against extradition to the US under the Extradition Act 2003. On denying Tappin's appeal against extradition to the United States, Mr Justice Cranston, a judge of the High Court of England and Wales, considered whether the case was the result of entrapment by US agents, concluding:

Tappin's alleged co-conspirators were Robert Frederick Gibson (a British citizen) who pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment, and Robert Thomas Caldwell (a US citizen) who was convicted at trial in 2007 and sentenced to one year and eight months imprisonment.

In 2005, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents established a front company, Mercury Global Enterprises (MGE). A business acquaintance of Tappin contacted the company initially to buy surveillance equipment. They later enquired about exporting other military hardware without the proper licenses. Shortly before the man was arrested for trying to buy zinc/silver oxide batteries to power MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missiles for a customer in Tehran, Tappin was named as an exporter.

Christopher Harold Tappin (born November 1946) 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.