Tech titan arrested at $35m mansion over selling US equipment to Iran’s military and nuclear programs
A California tech mogul accused of arming Iran’s nuclear and military machine was dragged in handcuffs from his $35 million ocean-view mansion.
Prosecutors allege that 63-year-old Jamshid Ghomi, a dual Iranian-U.S. citizen, sold advanced American networks, security and encryption hardware to the regime for more than a decade.
He was charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by funneling equipment to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and the regime’s Defense Ministry, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
He and his collaborators referred to Iran as ‘Motherland’ in their private messages.
From 2011 to 2015, Ghomi made more than 400 purchases from his eBay and PayPal accounts, routed through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates.
Between 2014 and 2018, more than 250 metric tons of mesh kits were smuggled into Iran using freight forwarders in Dubai.
Ghomi allegedly used his own company, Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh (FPR), as a vehicle for his smuggling operation, with annual sales exceeding $10 million.
He told the IRS that more than $15 million in money he transferred from Iran to U.S. accounts was a foreign inheritance and that the money was allegedly laundered through shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE.
The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Jamshid Ghomi, 63, an Iran-U.S. dual resident of Newport Coast, Calif., has been charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Ghomi’s federal tax returns report almost no income; His highest income in all years was $20,684. Over seven tax years, Ghomi built a massive mansion with the proceeds of his alleged crimes while claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, an opportunity for low-income earners.
Almost no income was reported on federal tax returns; the highest income in any given year was only $20,684.
Even though Ghomi built a large mansion with the proceeds of his alleged crimes, he claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, a privilege for low-income earners, in seven separate tax years.
Protected by iron gates, the spacious 14,000-square-foot home sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The California Post reported.
Ghomi purchased the vacant lot in March 2010 for $4.49 million and then spent approximately $10.49 million to build the residence over the next three years.
According to the Justice Department, between May 2011 and August 2015, more than $7 million in foreign wire transfers flowed into an escrow account financing construction that was managed by the same FPR employees and bore the same fake labels as the company’s sales proceeds.
Iran’s atomic agency, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2020 for enrichment violations, registered FPR as an approved vendor in 2021 and 2022, the affidavit states.
The charges relate to the alleged sale of sophisticated American networking, security and encryption hardware to the regime over more than a decade. Above, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei
The company supplied the nuclear body from 2017 to 2023 and to the Iranian defense ministry from 2014 to 2022.
First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said: ‘We will hold him accountable by seeking an appropriate prison sentence and seizing his assets, including his $35 million Newport Beach mansion.’
Essayli said Ghomi was ‘aiding our declared enemies’ and ‘doing business with one of the world’s largest sponsors of terrorism’.
Ghomi, who is scheduled to appear in court this afternoon in Santa Ana in Orange County, faces up to 20 years in prison.
