Alamo Man Pleads Guilty To Violating Sanctions On Iran

ALAMO, CA — An Alamo man 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. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

According to a news release issued by the DOJ's Public Affairs Office, 70-year-old Farhad Nafeiy pleaded guilting to a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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.

"Under IEEPA, the President of the United States is granted authority to address unusual and extraordinary threats to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. Under that law, the President has issued orders prohibiting certain activities and transactions with Iran and the Government of Iran," The news release explained.

According to court documents, Nafeiy obtained licenses, or approvals, from OFAC for advising non-Iranian telecommunications companies on doing business with Iran.

Prosecutors said those licenses did not authorize Nafeiy to provide any hardware, software or technology directly to Iran but that Nafeiy exceeded his OFAC licenses, "thereby violating the ITSR and IEEPA, by directly providing software upgrades to telecommunications equipment in Iran."

According to the news release, Nafeiy admitted in his plea agreement that he knew he exceeded these licenses when he did so. He also admitted that 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, the news release said.

Nafeiy's sentencing hearing will be held Jan. 29, when he will appear before U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin who could sentence Nafeiy to anywhere 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.