Federal prosecutors say Jamshid Ghomi used front companies, online accounts and overseas shippers to move U.S. equipment to Iranian customers.
SANTA ANA, CA — A Newport Coast technology executive was arrested Wednesday on a federal complaint accusing him of using U.S. accounts, front companies and overseas shippers to supply American computer equipment to customers in Iran.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, a dual U.S.-Iranian national, is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Prosecutors said the case centers on more than a decade of purchases and shipments of U.S.-origin networking, security and encryption equipment. The complaint says some equipment went to Iranian government customers tied to the country’s nuclear and military programs. Ghomi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
Federal authorities said Ghomi is the founder, owner and chief executive of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., a Tehran-based computer networking company also known as FPR. The company’s annual sales exceeded $10 million, prosecutors said, and its customer list included hundreds of Iranian companies and government bodies. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Ghomi is accused of selling U.S.-origin computer networking parts to Iran and earning millions of dollars in violation of sanctions laws. Essayli said prosecutors would seek an appropriate prison sentence and seizure of assets, including a Newport Beach mansion valued by authorities at $35 million.
The complaint says the alleged scheme ran from 2011 to 2023. Prosecutors said Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts to make hundreds of purchases of computer networking equipment, then routed the goods to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates. In 2023, authorities said, he personally negotiated purchases from suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska and moved the equipment through a UAE front company before it was sent to FPR in Iran. Prosecutors said neither Ghomi nor FPR had a license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for the transactions.
Investigators said Ghomi arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran from 2014 to 2018. The complaint says freight forwarders and intermediaries in Dubai helped hide Iran as the true destination. Prosecutors said Ghomi directed others to keep his name off shipping records, leave invoices out of shipments bound for Iran and, in at least two cases, hide U.S.-origin computer equipment inside larger shipments. The complaint says Ghomi and others referred to Iran as “Motherland” in internal messages about procurement.
Authorities said the equipment was not merely for private business customers. From 2017 to 2023, prosecutors said, FPR supplied U.S.-origin networking equipment to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the Iranian government agency responsible for the country’s nuclear program. The complaint says FPR registered as an approved vendor for that agency in 2021 and 2022. Prosecutors also said FPR supplied networking, security and encryption equipment from 2014 to 2022 to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics and affiliated military and defense electronics entities.
The sanctions laws at issue restrict exports, reexports, sales and supplies of goods, technology and services to Iran or its government without federal approval. Prosecutors said the rules are tied to U.S. national security concerns, including Iran’s nuclear program and support for terrorism. Darren Lian, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles field office, said the arrest reflects an effort to stop the illegal flow of American technology to foreign adversaries. Lian said Ghomi allegedly hid the activity through front companies and false documents.
The complaint also accuses Ghomi of moving money from the alleged sanctions evasion business into the United States. Prosecutors said FPR sales revenue was deposited into an account at a sanctioned Iranian bank before matching wires arrived in Ghomi’s U.S. accounts from trading companies and exchange houses in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Turkey and the UAE. Those transfers were described as payments for goods or consulting fees, authorities said. From 2011 to 2024, prosecutors said, more than $15 million moved into Ghomi’s U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account.
Federal officials said Ghomi falsely reported the money to the IRS as a foreign inheritance. His tax returns reported almost no income, prosecutors said, with his highest reported income in any year listed as $20,684. Authorities said he claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit in seven tax years while also reporting more than $1.7 million in home mortgage interest and $1.25 million in state and local real estate taxes. Prosecutors said Ghomi bought a vacant Newport Coast lot for $4.49 million in March 2010 and paid about $10.49 million to build the residence from 2010 to 2013.
IRS Criminal Investigation and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Lachman of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting it, with help from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section. Ghomi was expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
The case remains at the complaint stage, and prosecutors have not said how many Iranian end users ultimately installed or operated the U.S.-origin equipment. The next milestone is Ghomi’s initial federal court appearance in Santa Ana.
Author note: Last updated June 3, 2026.