Tech Executive Arrested for Iran Conspiracy

Well, how about this? Breaking today in southern California,

a tech executive

arrested and set to make a court appearance any moment now.

He is accused of sending secret shipments to Iran's military and nuclear

program. Our senior national correspondent,

William LaJeunesse, live in Los Angeles

with the details. William.

Well, John, he is a 63-year-old Iranian American

charged with supplying

sensitive and export restricted US technology to Iran's

military and their nuclear enrichment program.

Jamshid Ghomi is a dual citizen living in Newport Beach.

The US attorney for Los Angeles has charged him with conspiracy to violate

US law, and he will appear in court later today.

Now, according to the indictment, Ghomi sent more than 250 tons of

networking and encryption hardware, worth millions of dollars, to

Iran. Over the last decade, he made hundreds of purchases of these

components for the Islamic regime, but routed the shipments through

the UAE to skirt US law and obscure their real destination.

Now, he kept his name off invoices to hide his

identity, and in

correspondence, he referred to Iran as the motherland.

He aided our enemies. He provided them sensitive US computer

components, uh, for their government, their programs, their systems,

and, uh, he enriched himself. He made millions of dollars doing this.

The allegation is he was, he was not reporting this income

generated from his business in Iran.

So Ghomi wired money through multiple offshore accounts to hide his

income. In fact, his tax returns show almost zero income,

the

highest being 20 grand in any given year.

He even claimed the earned income tax credit, a tax break

for low-income workers, yet he lives in a 14,000 square

foot, $35 million mansion on the beach, and the

IRS has traced the income to buy the house to Iran.

So the indictment shows Ghomi traveled to the region about 11 times in the last

decade, recently last month. He faces 20 years, John, if

convicted on the conspiracy charges