Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 43, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen from Natick, Mass., was found guilty on Monday after a 14-day trial on one count of conspiracy and two counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.
When he is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 13, he faces up to 60 years in jail and $1 million in fines, as well as three years of supervised release after the prison term, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Sadeghi worked with Tehran-based Mohammed Abedininajafabadi, also known as Mohammas Abedini, to obtain U.S.-made electronic components and route them to Iran through a Swiss front company, evading U.S. export controls.
Abedini remains a fugitive, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The components, including accelerometers, gyroscopes and inertial measurement units, were supplied to San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co., which the U.S. designated a foreign terror organization in 2019.
“This defendant exploited his access to sophisticated U.S. technology to help funnel sensitive electronic components to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and export control laws,” stated Leah B. Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts. “These laws exist to protect our national security by preventing these high-tech components from reaching, and being used by, hostile foreign actors and terrorist organizations.”
Ted Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston field office, stated that “this verdict should serve as a wake-up call to those in corporate America that if you violate our country’s export laws, you will not get away with it.”
“Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi learned this the hard way when he conspired to send electronic components to Iran, one of the world’s most infamous state sponsors of terrorism,” Docks stated. “There’s no question Mr. Sadeghi put his own personal interests ahead of our country’s best interests. Export laws exist for a reason and that’s to protect our national security, here and abroad.”
Prosecutors said that Sadeghi, who worked for a Massachusetts microelectronics manufacturer and co-founded a U.S. technology startup, helped facilitate the illegal transfers beginning in 2016.
The Justice Department also said that navigation technology produced by SDRA was found in an Iranian Shahed drone recovered after the January 2024 attacks on the U.S. military’s Tower 22 base in Jordan, which killed three American service members and wounded more than 40 others.
