Federal prosecutors say they found a pipeline running from Iran’s nuclear and military programs straight to a luxury enclave on the California coast.

Jamshid Ghomi, 63, a dual U.S.-Iranian national who lives in Newport Coast, was arrested June 3, 2026 on a federal complaint charging him with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The Justice Department says Ghomi is the founder and CEO of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., a Tehran-based networking company, and that he spent more than a decade funneling sophisticated American equipment to Iranian customers without ever getting authorization from the Treasury Department.

Among those customers, according to prosecutors, were the worst possible buyers: Iran’s nuclear establishment and its military.

The DOJ alleges the operation was anything but small. From 2014 to 2018, prosecutors say Ghomi arranged to smuggle more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran.

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He allegedly used his own eBay and PayPal accounts from 2011 to 2023 for hundreds of purchases, routing the goods through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates before they reached Tehran.

Prosecutors say the equipment landed with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran between 2017 and 2023, and with Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics between 2014 and 2022.

A complaint is only an allegation, and Ghomi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Justice Department laid out the core allegation this way:

A dual U.S.-Iranian national and CEO of an Iran-based technology company was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with violating U.S. sanctions against Iran by acquiring sophisticated U.S.-origin networking, security, and encryption equipment for Iranian customers — including the Iranian regime’s nuclear and military establishment.

Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast, is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Ghomi is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in Santa Ana.

For more than a decade, Ghomi has used FPR to procure U.S.-origin networking equipment for customers in Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

At no time did Ghomi or FPR obtain a license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorizing those transactions.

Then there is the money, which is where the story comes home to California.

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The DOJ says Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into his U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account between 2011 and 2024.

He allegedly told the IRS the money was a foreign inheritance.

The same filings tell a strange story. Prosecutors say Ghomi reported almost no income, with his highest reported year coming in at $20,684, and that he claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit in seven separate years.

That is a tax break meant for low- and moderate-income working families.

Over the same stretch, the DOJ says he reported more than $1.7 million in home-mortgage interest and $1.25 million in state and local real-estate taxes.

The Justice Department also described the money trail that allegedly led from Iran to Newport Coast:

From 2011 to 2024, Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into his U.S. bank accounts and into a construction escrow account held on his behalf. He falsely reported those funds to the IRS as a foreign inheritance.

Ghomi’s federal tax returns reported almost no income, his highest reported income in any year being $20,684. Ghomi claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal tax break for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families, in seven different tax years.

Over the same period, Ghomi reported more than $1.7 million in home-mortgage interest and $1.25 million in state and local real-estate taxes on his federal income tax returns.

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Ghomi funded the construction of his Orange County mansion with the proceeds of his sanctions-evasion scheme. Ghomi purchased a vacant lot in Newport Coast in March 2010 for $4,490,000 and paid approximately $10,490,371 to construct the residence from 2010 to 2013.

From May 2011 to August 2015, foreign-source wires totaling more than $7 million flowed into the escrow account funding the home’s construction. These wires came from many of the same trading companies as the transfers from FPR’s operating account, were handled by the same FPR employees, and bore the same false descriptions.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche put a number on the property and signaled what comes next.

He said federal authorities are beginning the process of seizing the $35 million mansion.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli framed the case as exactly the kind of betrayal that should bother every American.

If convicted, Ghomi would face a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

The case is a reminder that sanctions only work when someone enforces them, and that the regime in Tehran is always shopping for American technology through people who know how to hide.

This time prosecutors say they followed the wire transfers all the way to the front door.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

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