FAA Contractor Pleads Guilty To Spying For Iran

A former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor has pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of Iran. The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Virginia, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of Iran by pursuing an FAA job to gain access to information. From 2017 to 2024, Rahmati met with Iranian officials, communicated with security officials, and provided “non-public materials about the U.S. solar energy industry.” According to the DOJ, it was Rahmati who offered his services to Iran:

In August 2017, Rahmati offered his services to the Iranian government through a senior Iranian government official who previously worked in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and with whom Rahmati had previously attended university. Four months later, in December 2017, Rahmati traveled to Iran, where he met with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials and agreed to obtain information about the U.S. solar energy industry, to provide that information to Iranian officials, and to conduct future communications under a cover story based on purported discussions about research with fellow academics.

Rahmati previously was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to May 2010. The IRGC is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. government. The DOJ said Rahmati offered his services to Iran in August 2017 through a former colleague who was a senior Iranian government official who previously worked at the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Rahmati traveled to Iran four months later and met with intelligence operatives and government officials, the DOJ said. He also agreed to gather and provide Iranian officials with information about the solar industry in the U.S. Read: Rahmati provided information “relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control towers” to his brother in Iran, which was then provided to government officials. He also at one point provided information related to “the National Aerospace System (NAS), Airport Surveillance Radar systems, and radio frequency data.” In early 2018, Rahmati obtained private and open-source materials related to the U.S. solar industry, then provided them to the office of Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology. Rahmati is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 26, and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government, and up to five years in prison for conspiracy. The guilty plea comes amidst President Donald Trump’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran in which the president has warned military options are on the table should Iran not agree to never possess a nuclear weapon.