Who Is Jamshid Ghomi? California Techie Accused of Helping Iran's Nuclear Agency?

A dual US-Iranian national, Jamshid Ghomi of California, has been arrested on federal charges of sanctions violations after allegedly spending more than a decade supplying US-origin networking, security and encryption equipment to Iranian customers, the US Department of Justice informed. If convicted, Ghomi will face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

The 63-year-old techie is the founder and chief executive of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh, a Tehran-based computer networking firm. He was charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and is expected to face asset seizures including a $35mn Newport Beach mansion prosecutors allege was built with the proceeds of the scheme.

According to the complaint, Ghomi used his company to procure and smuggle controlled US technology into Iran from 2011 onwards without ever obtaining the required licences from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Between 2014 and 2018 alone, he arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tonnes of networking equipment through freight forwarders in Dubai, deliberately concealing Iran as the final destination, the DoJ said.

He was also accused of directing co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping paperwork, omit invoices from Iran-bound shipments and on at least two occasions hide US equipment inside larger consignments. Internal correspondence referred to Iran as "Motherland."

The most sensitive business involved Iran's nuclear and military establishments. From 2017 to 2023, Ghomi's firm supplied US-origin equipment to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the agency responsible for Iran's centrifuge and uranium enrichment programmes, which the US State Department sanctioned in 2020. Between 2014 and 2022, the firm also supplied Iran's Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics and affiliated defence-electronics entities. FPR's annual sales exceeded $10mn and reached hundreds of Iranian companies and government bodies, many of them subject to US sanctions.

Prosecutors alleged Ghomi laundered the proceeds by routing FPR's Iranian revenues through a rotating set of trading companies and exchange houses in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE, with wire transfers bearing false descriptions such as "Buying Goods" and "For Consulting Fees." Between 2011 and 2024, more than $15mn was moved into his US bank accounts and a construction escrow fund. He falsely reported the funds to the IRS as a foreign inheritance.

Despite this, Ghomi's federal tax returns reported almost no income — his highest declared earnings in any year were $20,684 — and he claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, a benefit for low- to moderate-income workers, in seven separate tax years. Over the same period he reported more than $1.7mn in mortgage interest and $1.25mn in property taxes on his returns.