U.S. Charges California Tech Executive With Sending Networking Gear to Iran’s Nuclear, Military Entities

Federal prosecutors arrested a California-based dual U.S.-Iranian tech executive Wednesday on a criminal complaint alleging he ran a yearslong scheme to send U.S.-origin networking, security and encryption equipment to Iranian nuclear and military entities, including the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

The Justice Department said Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast, California, was taken into custody on a federal criminal complaint charging conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the federal law often used to prosecute Iran sanctions and export-control cases. Ghomi is described by prosecutors as a dual U.S.-Iranian national and the founder, owner and CEO of the Iran-based technology company Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., or FPR. He was expected to make an initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California. The allegations are contained in a criminal complaint and have not been proven in court; Ghomi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. If convicted, he faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison.

According to the complaint, Ghomi acquired U.S.-origin equipment and sent it to customers in Iran through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates. Prosecutors said that from 2011 to 2015, he used his own eBay and PayPal accounts to make more than 400 purchases of computer-networking equipment, directing the goods to middlemen in the UAE. The complaint further alleges that in 2023 he personally negotiated purchases of U.S.-origin networking equipment from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska, routing the shipments through a UAE front company to FPR in Iran.

The Justice Department said the alleged operation was large in scale as well as long-running. From 2014 to 2018, according to the complaint, Ghomi arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, using freight forwarders and intermediaries in Dubai to disguise Iran as the true destination. Prosecutors allege he instructed co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping paperwork, omit invoices and use front companies to conceal the shipments.

Authorities say the equipment ultimately went to some of Iran’s most sensitive state entities. The complaint alleges that FPR supplied the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the state agency responsible for Iran’s nuclear program, from 2017 to 2023, and supplied Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics and affiliated entities from 2014 to 2022. As one example of Ghomi’s alleged knowledge of the end users, prosecutors said a 2017 contract he signed expressly identified a buyer within Iran’s defense ministry. They also said FPR registered as an approved Atomic Energy Organization of Iran vendor in 2021 and 2022.

Prosecutors also allege that Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into the United States between 2011 and 2024, sending the money into U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account. The Justice Department said the transfers came through senders in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE and used false payment descriptions. Prosecutors said they will seek seizure of assets, including Ghomi’s $35 million Newport Beach mansion.

The case underscores how U.S. sanctions and export controls on Iran extend beyond weapons to advanced commercial technology with military or nuclear applications. Treasury Department sanctions rules and Commerce Department export controls generally bar unlicensed exports or reexports of U.S.-origin goods to Iran, especially sensitive networking, security and encryption equipment. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has been under U.S. sanctions since 2020.

The investigation is being led by IRS Criminal Investigation, with coordination from the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which enforces U.S. export rules. “As alleged, Ghomi enriched himself by supplying U.S. technology to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and other sanctioned entities responsible for the Iran’s nuclear program,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.