California tech CEO charged in 250-ton Iran sanctions scheme
What's new: Prosecutors say Jamshid Ghomi moved more than $15 million through offshore intermediaries and used some of it on a $35 million mansion.
Federal prosecutors charged California businessman Jamshid Ghomi with conspiring to violate US sanctions by sending export-restricted networking, security and encryption equipment to Iran over more than a decade. Authorities allege Ghomi, 63, used his Tehran-based company Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. to route US-origin equipment through the United Arab Emirates, with some shipments reaching entities tied to Iran's nuclear and military establishment. Prosecutors said more than 250 metric tons of equipment went to Iran from 2014 to 2018 and that Ghomi moved more than $15 million into the United States through intermediaries in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE. He was arrested at his Newport Coast home, appeared in court Wednesday and did not enter a plea.