An Alamo man has pleaded guilty to charges of violating sanctions by exporting software upgrades for commercial-grade telecommunications servers to the Islamic Republic of Iran and for tax evasion.
The U.S, Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced Tuesday that a judge accepted guilty pleas from 70-year-old Farhad Nafeiy.
Nafeiy pleaded guilty to a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Under IEEPA, the President of the United States has authority to address unusual and extraordinary threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the President has issued orders prohibiting certain activities and transactions with Iran and the Government of Iran.
Prosecutors said Nafeiy obtained licenses, or approvals, from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control for advising non-Iranian telecommunications companies on doing business with Iran.
But prosecutors said those licenses didn’t authorize Nafeiy to provide any hardware, software, or technology directly to Iran. Nafeiy exceeded his OFAC licenses, thereby violating IEEPA and Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
Nafeiy also broke the sanctions by providing software upgrades to telecommunications equipment in Iran.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Nafeiy admitted in his plea agreement he knew he exceeded these licenses when he did so. Nafeiy also admitted the total amount of sales of such software upgrades to Iran was approximately $400,000.
Nafeiy also admitted to evading his federal income taxes, and specifically not paying income tax on some of the proceeds of these sales.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin scheduled Nafeiy’s sentencing hearing for Jan. 29.
Nafeiy faces prison terms varying from five to 20 years on each count and maximum fines ranging from $250,000 to $1 million for each offense. He also faces paying more than $79,000 to the IRS in restitution.
Hmmm, I wonder why he didn’t route his transactions through our good friends and business partners in Abu Dhabi, UAE,,, who, in turn, are very good friends and business partners with Iran… see how this works? Somebody high up in Silicon Valley probably didn’t like Nafeiy getting a step ahead of them. Messing around not paying the IRS for his cross/border games … that’s just stupid.
He was probably following the lead set by the Biden Administration and their kind treatment and giving in to this terrorist state.
Funny I never read about how the CCP is able to make a jet plane or a rocket to the dark side of the moon. They have guys sending home that much every night.
Obviously this guy should be jailed. Take my word for it though China was a backward country before Nixon and every great thing they have built was from information stolen by the them from us and Europe.. It continues today with their citizens working in our labs,colleges and corporations and none of them get prosecuted. Yes, I know they have 5000 years of history and they could make cute trinkets to sell in Chinatown but that was their limit.
Wide open borders thanks to clueless and or corrupt Democrat politicians and their clueless and or corrupt supporters has many many bad ramifications.
Is the irony of your comment not lost on you? The Biden DOJ literally just announced that they investigated and prosecuted this case.
What case?
Are you referring to the Democrat controlled politicized so-called Justice Department?
.
Nafeiy should have gotten tips from the Joe Biden crime family on how to launder money thru shell companies.
.
Traitor.
… lock ’em up – throw away the key
1. Fed to confiscate all assets from immediate family members (property, bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, and business relationships).
2. Even if a US citizen, remove citizenship including all immediate family members.
3. Take all immediate family members and send them back to Iran immediately.
4. When perp serves his time then send him back to Iran immediately.
5. We must take steps to show that the US takes seriously treachery.
6. 90% of all spying/working for foreign espionage in any capacity would stop immediately.
7. Maybe death penalties should be brought back and no trading of prisoner exchanges.
As crimes go it’s a yawn. But if I gotta pay taxes on all my income, so do you. Burn him.