California tech CEO arrested for selling computer equipment to Iran’s nuclear programme

The US Department of Justice has charged a California-based tech CEO with selling computer equipment to the Iranian military and nuclear programme.

The DoJ on Wednesday announced the arrest of Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast, California, for violating sanctions on Iran. He has been charged with supplying hundreds of tonnes of equipment to Iran between 2011 and 2024 and transferring at least $15 million in proceeds into his US-based bank accounts.

Ghomi is a dual US-Iranian national and is the founder, owner, and CEO of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh (FPR), a Tehran-based computer networking company.

Decades-long sanctions bar most transactions with Iran, particularly with the military and nuclear establishment, without a licence from the federal government.

The DoJ has said that Ghomi supplied equipment to Iran through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

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From the proceeds of his operation, Ghomi is also accused of buying a $4 million plot of land in Orange County, California, and spending another $10 million to build a mansion on it.

Ghomi personally oversaw the operation: DoJ

The DoJ said that Ghomi identified, negotiated, purchased, and arranged the transport of barred US goods to Iran.

From 2011 to 2015, Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts to make more than 400 purchases of computer-networking equipment, which he transferred to Iran through intermediaries in the UAE, according to the DoJ.

By 2018, Ghomi had smuggled more than 250 tonnes of networking equipment into Iran through freight forwarders and intermediaries in Dubai to disguise that Iran was the true destination, as per the DoJ.

The DoJ said that the operation continued as late as 2023 when Ghomi allegedly personally negotiated the purchase of US-origin networking equipment directly from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska and transferred it to Iran through an Emirati company.

Between 2017 and 2023, Ghomi supplied US-origin computer networking equipment to the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), the Iranian government agency responsible for the country's nuclear programme, according to the DoJ.

The US government sanctioned the AEOI in 2020 for breaching limits on its uranium stockpile and enrichment levels.

The DoJ alleged that Ghomi knew at all stages what he was doing. It cited a 2017 contract that he signed with Iran Computer Industries where the eventual recipient of US-origin equipment he was supplying was listed as the Iranian defence ministry.