U.S. CEO Charged With Selling U.S. Tech To Iran’s Nuclear Program
A U.S. CEO faces federal charges for allegedly selling sophisticated U.S. technology to Iran, violating the country’s sanctions.
Jamshid Ghomi is a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who led an Iran-based technology company. According to federal prosecutors, Ghomi acquired U.S.-origin networking, security, and encryption equipment for Iranian customers — including the Iranian regime’s nuclear and military establishments.
“Ghomi enriched himself by supplying U.S. technology to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and other sanctioned entities responsible for Iran’s nuclear program,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said. “The National Security Division will hold accountable those who violate our laws to further Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Ghomi, of Newport Coast, California, is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). ABC News reported that he made his first appearance in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, this week. He did not enter a plea, and his arraignment was scheduled for July 13.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said that the government was seeking to seize Ghomi’s assets, including a $35 million Newport Beach mansion.
“Ghomi spent years exploiting United States financial systems and procurement channels to move controlled equipment to Iran while hiding his activities behind front companies and falsified documentation,” Acting Special Agent in Charge Darren Lian of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Los Angeles Field Office said.
Ghomi was identified as the founder, owner, and CEO of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd. (FPR), a Tehran-based computer networking company. Federal prosecutors allege that he used FPR to acquire U.S. technology and provide it to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. According to prosecutors, neither Ghomi nor FPR ever obtained a license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorizing those transactions.
The government alleges that from 2011 to 2015 Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts to make more than 400 purchases of computer-networking equipment, directing the goods to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In 2023, Ghomi negotiated the purchase of U.S.-origin networking equipment directly from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska, routing it through a UAE front company and on to FPR in Iran.
Ghomi also stands accused of smuggling of more than 250 metric tons (275.6 U.S. tons) of networking equipment into Iran between 2014 and 2018, using intermediaries in Dubai to hide the fact that Iran was destination. Prosecutors said that Ghomi and his co-conspirators referred to Iran as “Motherland” in their correspondence.
The government also alleges that from 2017 to 2023 FPR supplied U.S.-origin computer networking equipment to the Iranian government agency responsible for Iran’s nuclear program, including its centrifuge and uranium-enrichment programs.
FPR’s annual sales exceeded $10 million, but Ghomi’s reported income to the IRS never exceeded $20,684.
Ghomi allegedly laundered the proceeds from the technology sales. From 2011 to 2024, Ghomi moved $15 million from Iran to U.S. bank accounts, telling the IRS it was a foreign inheritance. In 2010, Ghomi purchased a vacant lot in Newport Coast for $4,490,000 and paid approximately $10,490,371 to construct a home between 2010 and 2013.
From May 2011 to August 2015, foreign-source wires totaling more than $7 million flowed into the escrow account that funded the home’s construction, prosecutors added.
If convicted, Ghomi would face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
