Homeland Security Investigations worked on the case.
December 19, 2023, 5:00 p.m. ET
• 3 min reading
Two men have been charged with illegally obtaining American technology for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' drone program, according to court documents unsealed by the Justice Department.
According to court documents, Iranian national Hossein Hatefi Ardakani and co-defendant Gary Lam, who lived in China and Hong Kong, were charged in federal court in Washington with procuring microelectronics for the IRGC program from 2014 to 2015.
Ardakani and his co-conspirators used a “network of foreign entities to carry out their concealment and evasion efforts,” the Justice Department alleged. It is unclear how many co-conspirators were believed to have been involved.
In one case, according to the indictments, Ardakani and Lam “induced an unwitting French company to purchase from a U.S. company several analog-to-digital converters with applications in wireless and broadband communications, radar and satellite subsystems, multicarrier and multimodal cellular communications.” Receiver, antenna array positioning and infrared imaging. According to court documents, the technology was shipped to Hong Kong and then “re-exported to Iran.”
The case was investigated primarily by Homeland Security Investigations, the DOJ said.
“Ardakani and his co-conspirators constructed an elaborate network of front companies to conceal the illegal acquisition of American and foreign technology to procure components for deadly UAVs,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New England. “These exact components have been used by Iran’s allies in current conflicts, including in Ukraine. Homeland Security Investigations’ dismantling of these criminal networks means that hundreds of thousands of critical UAV components will never be used for malicious purposes again.”
The two are charged with conspiring to export U.S. goods to Iran and defrauding the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. They are also accused of illegal export and attempted export of goods to Iran as well as conspiracy to launder international money. Each of these charges carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
In a separate announcement, the Justice Department said officials had seized more than $800,000 from companies linked to the IRGC's unnamed aircraft program, and the Treasury Department announced that Ardakani was subject to sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control Ministry imposed.
The two men could not immediately be reached.