In a pre-dawn raid at his Southern California luxury estate, federal law enforcement officials have taken into custody a 63-year-old dual US-Iranian citizen accused of running a more than decade-long sanctions evasion scheme that funneled sensitive American-made computer technology to Iran, including to the country’s nuclear and military institutions.
Jamshid Ghomi, the owner and chief executive of Tehran-based technology firm Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd (FPR), was arrested Wednesday morning at his Newport Coast home in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, according to announcements from US federal prosecutors. Court documents outline that the alleged illegal operation dates all the way back to 2011, when Ghomi first began organizing illicit shipments of restricted US-origin goods to Iranian buyers.
Prosecutors allege that Ghomi built a complex smuggling network that moved hundreds of tons of specialized networking, cybersecurity, and encryption equipment out of the United States, routing the shipments through the United Arab Emirates to conceal their final destination in Iran. Between 2014 and 2018 alone, the scheme moved more than 250 metric tons of restricted equipment across borders, court records state.
According to the US Department of Justice charging document, FPR served a broad customer base of hundreds of private and public sector entities across Iran. While most clients were civilian entities, prosecutors note that a meaningful share of the company’s business served high-sensitivity end users linked to the Iranian government’s nuclear program and military establishment – violating long-standing US sanctions that ban nearly all commercial trade with Iran.
To hide the profits from his illicit activities, Ghomi allegedly ran an international money laundering network that moved more than $15 million in proceeds through intermediaries in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates before sending the funds to his personal accounts in California, prosecutors claim. The illegal earnings were misrepresented to US tax regulators as foreign inheritance, according to the charges.
Prosecutors allege that a large portion of these illegal profits went toward building Ghomi’s Orange County luxury compound. Records show he purchased the land for the property in 2010 for roughly $4.5 million, before pouring an additional $10.5 million into constructing the current $35 million mansion, which federal officials have announced they will seek to seize as part of the criminal case.
Ghomi faces charges of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the federal statute that enforces US economic sanctions. He has not yet made any public statement responding to the allegations, and entered no plea during his initial court appearance Wednesday. His formal arraignment is scheduled for July 13, and a conviction on the charges could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
“Ghomi is accused of aiding our declared enemies by selling US-origin computer networking parts to Iran and earning millions of dollars in violation of US sanction laws,” said Assistant Attorney Bill Essayli in a statement following the arrest. “Our nation’s laws prohibiting doing business with one of the world’s largest state sponsors of terrorism must be enforced and obeyed. We will hold him accountable by seeking an appropriate prison sentence and by seizing his assets, including his $35 million Newport Beach mansion.”
The arrest comes amid ongoing tense relations between the US and Iran, with long-running disputes over Iran’s nuclear program at the center of the standoff. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapon under the cover of a civilian atomic energy program, an allegation Iranian officials have continuously denied. When questioned by reporters on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump confirmed that diplomatic negotiations between the two countries are ongoing, saying talks “are going on continuously,” though no breakthroughs have been announced to end the years-long conflict.