A Newport Coast resident with U.S. and Iranian citizenship who runs a technology company was arrested Wednesday, June 3 by federal law enforcement after prosecutors accused him of violated U.S. sanctions against Iran by smuggling sensitive computer equipment into that country, using proceeds to build his mansion.
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Jamshid Ghomi — the founder, owner and CEO of Tehran-based Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co., a computer-networking company — has been charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.
Federal prosecutors allege that for more than a decade Ghomi, now 63, used his company to evade sanctions by purchasing equipment from suppliers in the United States, routing it through a United Arab Emirates-based front company and then smuggling it into Iran.
To export that equipment into Iran legally, Ghomi would have needed a license from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, authorization prosecutors say he never received.
“Today’s arrest reflects our commitment to disrupt the illegal flow of American technology to foreign nations, especially our adversaries,” Darren Lian, acting special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement. “As alleged, Mr. 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.”
From 2014 to 2018 alone, prosecutors allege, Ghomi is accused of smuggling more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran. His company’s annual sales topped $10 million, prosecutors say. A metric ton is 10% more than a standard ton.
Among the clients were hundreds of Iranian companies and government entities, prosecutors allege, including “a relatively small but significant portion of that business (for) the Iranian regime’s nuclear and military establishment.”
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Prosecutors say Ghomi laundered the proceeds of the allegedly illegal business into the United States, moving $15 million from Iran into his U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account he controlled. He falsely reported the money to the IRS as a “foreign inheritance,” prosecutors allege.
After Ghomi purchased a vacant lot on the Newport Coast for nearly $4.5 million in 2010, he is accused of using more than $10 million in the allegedly illicit funds to build a mansion.
At the same time, prosecutors say, Ghomi was reporting nearly no actual income on his tax returns, and in seven different years claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax break for low-to-moderate income workers and families.
“Ghomi is accused of aiding our declared enemies by selling U.S.-origin computer networking parts to Iran and earning millions of dollars in violation of U.S. sanction laws,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement. “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,” Essayli said.
If convicted as charged, Ghomi faces up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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