Stanford Technology Trading Group International (STTGI) was a shell company founded by USAF

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 Major General Richard V. Secord

Richard Secord

Major General Richard V. Secord, Retired , is a United States Air Force officer convicted for his involvement with the Iran-Contra scandal only to be exonerated after a 1990 Supreme Court case found the statute used to be illegal....

 and Iranian arms dealer Albert Hakim

Albert Hakim

Albert Hakim was an Iranian businessman and a figure in the Iran-Contra affair.Born in Iran, Hakim attended California Polytechnic Institute for 3 years, beginning in 1955. Back in Iran, he established an export business specializing in advanced technologies, and in avoiding export restrictions...

, and a cornerstone of what was informally known as the "Enterprise", a complex web of for-profit business entities and non-profit front organization

Front organization

A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...

s created by Secord and Hakim to facilitate sales of arms to Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, transfers of arms to the Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

n Contras

Contras

The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups opposing Nicaragua's FSLN Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's dictatorship...

, as well as side dealings that benefited the Enterprise's principals in various ways.

Key people

• Thomas G. Clines
  Thomas G. Clines
  Thomas G. Clines was a Central Intelligence Agency covert operations agent who was a prominent figure in the Iran-Contra Affair.-CIA career:As a CIA agent, between 1961–1962, Clines was involved in covert operations in Cuba....
  
  , aka "C. Tea". Earned $883,000 for his services to the Enterprise.
• Willard I. Zucker, financial manager of the Enterprise's Swiss bank accounts.

Business and non-profit entities involved

• Compagnie de Service Fiduciaires (CSF)
• National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL)