1 hour ago
3
A wealthy California CEO accused of funding his uber-luxury lifestyle by funneling critical hi-tech data and hardware to Iran’s nuclear program will remain locked up.
Jamshid Ghomi, 63, who allegedly referred to Iran as the “motherland” in emails with co-conspirators, was ordered held without release Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas McCormick in federal court.
Escorted by U.S. Marshals, the dual Iranian-American citizen shuffled into a Santa Ana federal courtroom in shackles, unshaven and dressed in beige-and-orange jail attire.
Two relatives believed to be Ghomi’s wife and one of his two adult sons watched from the gallery.
Ghomi remained stoic and silent throughout the hearing. He was arrested during a dramatic pre-dawn raid at his $35 million gated Newport Coast mansion Wednesday, witnessed by The California Post.
Federal prosecutor David Lachman argued Ghomi poses both a serious flight risk and a threat to national security, telling the court the government has amassed roughly 100,000 documents of evidence against him.
Prosecutors said Ghomi communicated with co-conspirators in Iran as recently as last month and had lived there from late 2023 until returning to the United States on May 5.
The court also heard that Ghomi’s wife is a dual Iranian-American citizen.
Insisting that the defendant should remain in custody, prosecutor Lachman explained that the suspect’s “family and fortune is in Iran” and he has an “untold amount of money in Iran at his disposal.”
He argued that if given home detention, Ghomi could cut off an ankle monitor and “flee to Mexico. He has every reason to run. His closest ties are in Tehran, not Newport Coast.”
Ghomi’s legal team argued he should be released on bond into home custody. His lawyer, Greg Bernstein, said his client would not be “relocating back to a war zone, his family lives in Newport Beach and they’re not going anywhere.”
Ghomi is “an elderly man with a bad heart issue,” and has a pacemaker, added Bernstein.
His client’s assets in the US include $500,000 cash and tens of millions of dollars of equity in the mansion where he was arrested, which is worth up to $55 million.
Prosecutors say Ghomi, boss of a Tehran-based tech firm, supplied US networking and encryption equipment to Iran’s nuclear program and military, while laundering millions of dollars and inventing elaborate schemes to hide the shady transactions with the brutal regime.
He then allegedly used the ill-gotten proceeds from illegal deals to build the magnificent gated Tuscan-style home atop an ocean-front bluff in one of the country’s wealthiest zip codes.
Ghomi is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the U.S. president to freeze foreign assets during a national emergency.
According to the Justice Department, Ghomi’s company – Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh – supplied technology to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization from 2017 to 2023 and to it’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics between 2014 and 2022.
He allegedly laundered more than $15 million from Iran into US bank accounts and a construction escrow account, according to the DOJ, but falsely reported the funds as foreign inheritance.
Despite his opulent lifestyle, Ghomi reported almost no income on federal tax returns.
Prosecutors will attempt to seize Ghomi’s assets, which include the $35 million mansion in Newport Beach, which cost $10 million to construct.
Ghomi’s arrest “reflects our commitment to disrupt the illegal flow of American technology to foreign nations, especially our adversaries,” Darren Lian, Acting Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement.
He added the businessman “spent years exploiting United States financial systems and procurement channels to move controlled equipment to Iran while hiding his activities behind front companies and falsified documentation.
Ghomi faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.
Family members declined to comment to the Post.
English (US)