A former federal aviation contractor and the naturalized American citizen acknowledged that he was guilty of conspiring to act and act as an Iranian government agent.
According to news Release From the US Department of Justice on Wednesday, Abu Zar Ramati, 42, worked from Great Fols, Virginia, with Iranian government officials and intelligence employees from December 2017 at least until June 2024.
The Ministry of Justice stated that my mercy met with Iranian intelligence officers in Iran and communicated with them using a cover story to hide his behavior. It was employed as a FAA contractor with “access to non -general sensitive information about the American aviation sector,” and the statement stated.
Rahma also provided open materials and a source of the American solar energy industry to Iranian intelligence officers.
“In August 2017, the mercy of his services to the Iranian government through a senior Iranian government official who had previously worked in the Iranian Intelligence and Security Ministry, which Ramati previously joined the university,” stated the statement.
Four months later, he traveled to Iran and met with Iranian intelligence agents and government officials. There, he agreed to achieve information about the American solar industry and send it to Iranian officials.
After returning to the United States in 2018, Rahmati bought “different materials and open sources related to the American solar energy industry” and granted it to an official from the office of the Iranian Vice President and Technology.
The press release of the Ministry of Justice stated that he later downloaded at least 172 GB of files from an American company whose name was not revealed to Iran in April 2022. These files included FAA documents restricted to the national aviation system (NAS), NAS Airport monitoring systems and radio frequency data.
Rahma is scheduled to be sentenced to August 26, where he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government without a prior notification to the American Public Prosecutor. He also faces up to five years in prison for conspiracy.
“The judge of the Federal Provincial Court will define any punishment after considering the instructions for issuing American rulings and other legal factors,” the statement stated.