SANTA ANA (CNS) – A 63-year-old Newport Coast man charged with selling computer equipment to Iran’s nuclear program in violation of U.S. sanctions remains jailed Friday after a hearing Thursday in which an Orange County federal court judge denied him bail.
Jamshid Ghomi, who is a dual citizen of Iran and the U.S., was arrested Wednesday and appeared in federal court Thursday on a charge of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Ghomi, the owner of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., is accused of obtaining networking equipment for customers in Iran in violation of sanctions since 2009, according to an FBI affidavit for a search of his home at 31 Highwater.
Ghomi is accused of using PayPal and eBay accounts from March 2009 through May 2023 to acquire equipment and then funnel them to intermediaries in the United Arab Emirates, according to prosecutors.
“To move the goods, Ghomi arranged the shipment of more than 250,000 kilograms of networking equipment from the UAE to (his company) in Iran between 2014 and 2018 alone, using UAE front companies and freight forwarders to disguise that Iran was the true destination,” the affidavit alleges.
“Ghomi knew this conduct was unlawful and took deliberate steps to conceal it,” the affidavit alleges. “He directed his UAE co-conspirators to keep his name off shipping paperwork, to omit invoices from shipments bound for Iran, and on at least one occasion to physically hide U.S.-origin Cisco equipment inside a larger shipment.”
The company’s annual sales exceeded $10 million, “and its clientele included hundreds of Iranian companies and government entities,” the affidavit alleges. “A relatively small but significant portion of that business went to the most sensitive end-users in Iran: the Iranian government’s nuclear and military establishment.”
Ghomi’s attorney, Greg Bernstein, said his client has a wife and two sons he lives with in Newport Coast and has recently had heart surgery to illustrate how he has local ties and how his frail health would deter his flight from the country.
“The ultimate collateral is his family,” Bernstein argued. “His family lives in Newport Beach and he’s not going anywhere.”
Ghomi has surrendered his passports and is not able to acquire another one, his attorney said. If he tried to book an international flight it would be immediately flagged for authorities, the attorney said.
And since the country is at war with the U.S., Iran is not a desirable place to flee, Bernstein said.
Bernstein argued for GPS monitoring and home confinement. He said his client has access to about $500,000 in cash, but his mansion is worth about $35 million to $55 million.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Lachman argued Ghomi is a “serious risk of flight” and a “danger to the United States.”
Ghomi was in Iran “for the last two and a half years,” Lachman said, adding that the defendant referred to Iran as “the motherland” in emails to colleagues.
Ghomi has three siblings in Iran and his wife, who also has dual citizenship, was with him when he was last there, Lachman said.
“His liquid assets — they’re in Iran,” Lachman said.
Lachman noted how the defendant missed milestones in the lives of his sons, including one son’s graduation from UC Irvine law school.
Though Ghomi’s passports have been seized there’s nothing to stop him from fleeing to Mexico and arranging for flights from there, Lachman argued.
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