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A dual U.S.-Iranian technology executive was arrested and charged this week with running a decade-long scheme to illegally supply sophisticated American networking and encryption equipment to Iran’s nuclear and military programs while laundering millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast in Orange County, California, was arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a statute that prohibits exporting controlled goods or technology to Iran without authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
According to federal prosecutors, Ghomi used his company, Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., a Tehran-based computer networking firm, to procure hundreds of pieces of American-made equipment and route them to Iran through an elaborate concealment scheme spanning from 2011 to 2023. The operation involved more than 400 separate purchases of networking equipment placed through personal eBay and PayPal accounts, with goods directed through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates before being shipped to Iran.
Between 2014 and 2018 alone, prosecutors allege Ghomi and his co-conspirators smuggled more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, using freight forwarders and front companies based in Dubai to disguise the true destination of the shipments. The company’s annual sales exceeded $10 million, serving hundreds of Iranian companies and government entities, many subject to U.S. sanctions.
A particularly sensitive portion of FPR’s business involved supplying equipment to Iran’s most critical installations. From 2017 to 2023, the company allegedly supplied networking equipment to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the Iranian government agency responsible for the country’s nuclear program, including its uranium enrichment and centrifuge operations. FPR even registered as an approved vendor for the organization in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, from 2014 to 2022, FPR supplied networking, security, and encryption equipment to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, the ministry responsible for research, development, and manufacturing across Iran’s military and defense infrastructure.
To conceal his involvement, Ghomi directed his UAE-based co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping documents and to omit invoices from Iran-bound shipments. On at least two occasions, prosecutors say, he had them hide U.S.-origin computer equipment inside larger shipments. He personally received warnings on software licenses and invoices explicitly stating that exporting the goods to Iran was prohibited. In internal company correspondence, Ghomi and his associates referred to Iran as “Motherland,” according to the criminal complaint.
The proceeds from the illegal business operation were substantial. From 2011 to 2024, Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into his U.S. bank accounts and construction accounts through a web of shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey, and the UAE. He falsely reported these transfers to the IRS as a foreign inheritance, concealing the actual source of the funds.
Despite these reported illegal proceeds, Ghomi’s tax returns showed virtually no legitimate income. His highest reported income in any single year was $20,684. Yet he claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal benefit intended for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families, for seven consecutive tax years. During the same period, he reported more than $1.7 million in home mortgage interest and $1.25 million in state and local real estate taxes, according to prosecutors.
Ghomi used the laundered money to finance construction of a luxury mansion in Newport Coast that prosecutors value at approximately $35 million. He purchased a vacant lot there in March 2010 for $4.49 million and spent approximately $10.49 million constructing the residence from 2010 to 2013. From May 2011 to August 2015, more than $7 million in foreign-source wire transfers flowed into the escrow account funding the home’s construction, coming from the same trading companies and handled by the same FPR employees involved in the illegal technology exports.
Federal prosecutors have announced their intention to seek seizure of Ghomi’s assets, including the Newport Coast mansion. “We will be taking the mansion,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “The mansion will become property of the United States government. You cannot enrich yourself in violation of our laws and live in a mansion.”
If convicted on the charges, Ghomi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. His arraignment is scheduled for July 13. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
Ghomi is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. However, the indictment represents one of the most significant sanctions evasion cases targeting technology exports to Iran’s military and nuclear programs in recent years.