WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department, Commerce Department, and FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office moved against an Iran-based procurement network that impersonated American small businesses to fraudulently obtain restricted technology for Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, federal officials announced.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated multiple individuals and entities connected to the scheme, which officials said defrauded dozens of U.S. information technology companies, resellers, and vendors out of millions of dollars while illegally funneling restricted goods to Iran’s defense enterprise.
At the center of the network was Ali Majd Sepehr, who operated through his Iranian company Sorena Hushmand Samaneh Company. Prosecutors alleged Sepehr created fraudulent domains designed to impersonate legitimate U.S. businesses, using them to purchase network security and encryption software and hardware from American vendors under false pretenses. Among the items Sepehr attempted to source were spectrum analyzers and non-linear junction detectors, sought on behalf of a Ministry of Defense-controlled Iranian entity known as SAAFTA.
Sepehr conspired with Iranian national Mohammadali Mansour Darehshiri, who served as an intermediary and paid U.S. freight forwarders to store and ship fraudulently obtained goods from the United States to the United Arab Emirates. Darehshiri used two Dubai-based front companies — Green Light Computer Co LLC and Al Kawther Neon LLC — to receive the shipments before arranging their re-export to Iran. Italy-based Iranian national Saied Zahedi used a U.S. financial account to pay for domain registration services used in the impersonation scheme and to fund freight forwarding warehouses.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the scheme illustrated the lengths to which the Iranian regime was willing to go to support its military activities, and pledged continued use of all available authorities to cut off Iran’s access to the global financial system.
As a result of the designations, all property and interests in property of the named individuals and entities within U.S. jurisdiction were frozen. U.S. persons are broadly prohibited from engaging in transactions with the blocked parties. Treasury also warned that foreign financial institutions facilitating Iranian commerce, including those connected to Chinese oil refineries purchasing Iranian crude, could face secondary sanctions.
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program separately offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliates.