A Newport Coast resident was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran by allegedly selling networking, security and encryption equipment to the regime’s nuclear and military establishment.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He was expected to make his initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
A dual U.S.-Iranian national and chief executive of a Tehran-based technology company, Ghomi has allegedly used his company to procure U.S.-made networking equipment for customers in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions for more than a decade, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
At no time did Ghomi obtain the required license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury authorizing those transactions, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors allege that from 2011 to 2023, Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts to make hundreds of purchases of computer-networking equipment, directing the goods to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2023, Ghomi personally negotiated the purchase of U.S.-origin networking equipment directly from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska, routing it through a UAE front company and on to his company in Iran, court papers show.
None of the items could be lawfully exported to Iran without a license from the federal government.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Ghomi arranged the smuggling of more than 275.6 tons of networking equipment into Iran, using freight forwarders and intermediaries in Dubai to disguise that Iran was the true destination, making millions of dollars in the process.
Knowing the conduct was illegal, Ghomi allegedly directed his UAE co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping paperwork, to omit invoices from shipments bound for Iran, and on at least two occasions to hide U.S.-origin computer equipment inside larger shipments, prosecutors said.
Ghomi and his co-conspirators referred to Iran as “Motherland” in their internal correspondence concerning the equipment’s procurement, according to prosecutors in Los Angeles.
Ghomi is alleged to have laundered the proceeds of his illegal business into the United States, depositing his company’s Iranian sales revenue into its operating account at a sanctioned Iranian bank and then sweeping those funds to himself.
Within days, he received matching wires into his U.S. accounts from a rotating set of unrelated trading companies and exchange houses in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE, court papers allege.
If convicted, Ghomi could face up to 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted.
“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 IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles bureau, 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,” he said. “We will continue to work with our partners to safeguard national security by utilizing our financial investigative expertise.”
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