A outmoded Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor was as soon as indicted Friday for acting as an unlawful agent for the Iranian govt, the Department of Justice acknowledged.
In accordance to a DOJ liberate, from as a minimum December 2017 by means of June 2024, 42-year-frail Abouzar Rahmati allegedly met with Iranian govt officials and acted on their behalf.
Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Big Falls, Virginia, beforehand was as soon as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a department of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to Might maybe possibly fair 2010. The IRGC is a selected terrorist neighborhood by the U.S. govt.
After being discharged from the IRGC, the indictment alleges that Rahmati lied to the U.S. govt relating to his defense drive service with the IRGC in show to assign employment as a U.S. contractor.
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In Aug. 2017, prosecutors disclose that Rahmati started communicating with a senior Iranian govt decent with whom he had beforehand attended college.
Four months later, Rahmati traveled to Iran and met with intelligence operatives. In the future of the meetings, he agreed to form and provide them with data on the U.S. portray voltaic vitality substitute.
Following the initial meetings, Rahmati bought to work as a inspect for the Iranian govt. Prosecutors acknowledged that he in the slay grew to changed into a contractor for FAA’s National Airspace Draw (NAS), which allowed him to be privy to unruffled data.
Authorities alleged that in April 2022, Rahmati downloaded private documents connected to the FAA and the NAS energy and electrical structure and passed them alongside to Iran’s govt.
He furthermore gave the Govt of Iran further data relating to to portray voltaic vitality, portray voltaic panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air website visitors management.
“As alleged, the defendant conspired with Iranian officials and intelligence operatives, even lying to form employment as a U.S. govt contractor most effective to then half unruffled govt materials with Iran,” Assistant Lawyer Frequent Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division acknowledged. “When undisclosed agents of Iran or any assorted international govt gaze to infiltrate American companies or govt companies, the Justice Department will employ every accessible tool to determine them and lift them to justice.”
Rahmani made his initial look in the District of Columbia on Friday afternoon.
