A rich California CEO accused of funding his uber-luxury way of life by funneling vital hi-tech knowledge and {hardware} to Iran’s nuclear program will stay locked up.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, who allegedly referred to Iran because the “motherland” in emails with co-conspirators, was ordered held with out launch Thursday by U.S. Justice of the Peace Decide Douglas McCormick in federal court docket.
Escorted by U.S. Marshals, the twin Iranian-American citizen shuffled right into a Santa Ana federal courtroom in shackles, unshaven and wearing beige-and-orange jail apparel.
Two family members believed to be Ghomi’s spouse and one in all his two grownup sons watched from the gallery.
Ghomi remained stoic and silent all through the listening to. He was arrested throughout a dramatic pre-dawn raid at his $35 million gated Newport Coast mansion Wednesday, witnessed by The California Put up.
Federal prosecutor David Lachman argued Ghomi poses each a severe flight danger and a menace to nationwide safety, telling the court docket the federal government has amassed roughly 100,000 paperwork of proof towards him.
Prosecutors mentioned Ghomi communicated with co-conspirators in Iran as lately as final month and had lived there from late 2023 till returning to the US on Could 5.
The court docket additionally heard that Ghomi’s spouse is a twin Iranian-American citizen.
Insisting that the defendant ought to stay in custody, prosecutor Lachman defined that the suspect’s “household and fortune is in Iran” and he has an “untold amount of cash in Iran at his disposal.”
He argued that if given dwelling detention, Ghomi might minimize off an ankle monitor and “flee to Mexico. He has each motive to run. His closest ties are in Tehran, not Newport Coast.”
Ghomi’s authorized workforce argued he ought to be launched on bond into dwelling custody. His lawyer, Greg Bernstein, mentioned his consumer wouldn’t be “relocating again to a warfare zone, his household lives in Newport Seashore and so they’re not going wherever.”
Ghomi is “an aged man with a foul coronary heart problem,” and has a pacemaker, added Bernstein.
His consumer’s property within the US embrace $500,000 money and tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of fairness within the mansion the place he was arrested, which is price as much as $55 million.
Prosecutors say Ghomi, boss of a Tehran-based tech agency, equipped US networking and encryption gear to Iran’s nuclear program and navy, whereas laundering thousands and thousands of {dollars} and inventing elaborate schemes to cover the shady transactions with the brutal regime.
He then allegedly used the ill-gotten proceeds from unlawful offers to construct the magnificent gated Tuscan-style dwelling atop an ocean-front bluff in one of many nation’s wealthiest zip codes.
Ghomi is charged with conspiracy to violate the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act, which permits the U.S. president to freeze overseas property throughout a nationwide emergency.
In keeping with the Justice Division, Ghomi’s firm – Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh – equipped expertise to Iran’s Atomic Vitality Group from 2017 to 2023 and to it’s Ministry of Protection and Armed Forces Logistics between 2014 and 2022.
He allegedly laundered greater than $15 million from Iran into US financial institution accounts and a development escrow account, in line with the DOJ, however falsely reported the funds as overseas inheritance.
Regardless of his opulent way of life, Ghomi reported virtually no revenue on federal tax returns.
Prosecutors will try to seize Ghomi’s property, which embrace the $35 million mansion in Newport Seashore, which price $10 million to assemble.
Ghomi’s arrest “displays our dedication to disrupt the unlawful move of American expertise to overseas nations, particularly our adversaries,” Darren Lian, Appearing Particular Agent in Cost, IRS Legal Investigation’s Los Angeles Discipline Workplace, mentioned in an announcement.
He added the businessman “spent years exploiting United States monetary techniques and procurement channels to maneuver managed gear to Iran whereas hiding his actions behind entrance corporations and falsified documentation.
Ghomi faces a most of 20 years in jail if convicted.
Relations declined to remark to the Put up.
