WASHINGTON (TNND) — A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen and CEO of a Tehran-based tech company was denied bond after being charged with aiding Iran’s military and nuclear program.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, of Newport Coast, Calif., was ordered held without release Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas McCormick in federal court, the New York Post reported.
Ghomi is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted. He is accused of violating U.S. sanctions by supplying advanced American networking, security, and encryption equipment to customers in Iran — including organizations tied to Iran’s nuclear and military programs.
On Wednesday, Ghomi was arrested during a pre-dawn raid at his $35 million gated Newport Coast mansion.
Federal prosecutor David Lachman argued in court that Ghomi poses both a serious flight risk and a threat to national security, and that the government has compiled about 100,000 documents of evidence against him.
Ghomi communicated with co-conspirators in Iran as recently as last month, as he lived there from late 2023 until returning to the U.S. on May 5, according to prosecutors.
Lachman told the court that Ghomi should remain in custody because his “family and fortune is in Iran,” and he has an “untold amount of money in Iran at his disposal.”
The prosecutor argued that if given home detention, Ghomi could cut off an ankle monitor and “flee to Mexico. He has every reason to run. His closest ties are in Tehran, not Newport Coast.”
Ghomi’s wife is also a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen.
Greg Bernstein, Ghomi’s lawyer, argued that his client should be released on bond into home custody, as he would not be “relocating back to a war zone, his family lives in Newport Beach and they’re not going anywhere.”
Bernstein also said that Ghomi is “an elderly man with a bad heart issue,” and has a pacemaker.
Ghomi’s assets in the U.S. include $500,000 cash and tens of millions of dollars of equity in the mansion where he was arrested.
According to prosecutors, Ghomi has been running a years-long scheme through his company, Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh, to acquire U.S.-made technology and route it to Iran through intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates.
Ghomi allegedly concealed the transactions using front companies, falsified shipping records, and other tactics to evade sanctions.
Investigators said that Ghomi’s company sold equipment to hundreds of Iranian customers, including the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran from 2017 to 2023 and entities connected to Iran’s Ministry of Defense between 2014 and 2022.
The Department of Justice alleges that Ghomi earned millions from these transactions and funneled more than $15 million into U.S. accounts while falsely reporting the funds as an inheritance. He also reported almost no income on federal tax returns.
Federal officials are also seeking to seize assets allegedly tied to the scheme, including Ghomi’s Newport Coast mansion, valued at roughly $35 million.
Ghomi’s arrest “reflects our commitment to disrupt the illegal flow of American technology to foreign nations, especially our adversaries,” Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office, Darren Lian, said in a statement.
Lian added that 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.”