UMVA has learned that a stunning case of deception and corruption has led to the arrest of a California tech CEO, Jamshid Ghomi, who allegedly secretly supplied U.S. technology and equipment to Iran's nuclear and military establishment while hiding millions of dollars from the IRS.
Ghomi, a 63-year-old dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and CEO of the Tehran-based tech firm Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd. (FPR), was taken into custody on federal charges of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, facing up to 20 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors are already moving to seize his lavish $35 million mansion in Newport Coast, California, and other assets purchased with allegedly illicit funds, sparking a complex investigation into Ghomi's dealings.
According to information obtained by UMVA, Ghomi procured hundreds of controlled U.S.-origin items through eBay, PayPal, and direct purchases from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska, then routed them through front companies in the United Arab Emirates to Iran — all without the required licenses from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
A significant portion of the equipment went to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the regime entity responsible for Iran's centrifuge and uranium-enrichment programs, and to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, along with affiliated military and defense-electronics entities.
Between 2014 and 2018 alone, Ghomi and his co-conspirators smuggled more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, hiding U.S.-origin items inside larger shipments and keeping Ghomi's name off paperwork, in a brazen scheme to evade detection.
Internal communications revealed Ghomi and his associates referred to Iran as the "Motherland," showcasing a disturbing level of loyalty to the regime they were clandestinely supporting.
While Ghomi lived like royalty in one of California's most expensive enclaves, he was systematically looting the system and cheating American taxpayers, hiding millions of dollars in proceeds from his illicit Iran business in U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account used to build his mansion.
Ghomi's federal tax returns told a completely different story: his income in any single year was just $20,684, and he fraudulently claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit — a benefit intended for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families — in seven different tax years.
The mansion itself was funded with dirty money, Ghomi purchasing a vacant lot in Newport Coast in 2010 for $4.49 million and spending another $10.49 million constructing the massive residence, with over $7 million in foreign-source wires flowing into the escrow account between 2011 and 2015.
Ghomi's case highlights the pervasive issue of sanctions evasion and the brazen attempts of some individuals to deceive and exploit the system, posing significant risks to national security and the integrity of the financial system.
