SANTA ANA, Calif. — Federal authorities arrested Jamshid Ghomi, a dual U.S.-Iranian national living in Newport Coast, on a criminal complaint accusing him of building a years-long pipeline that moved American technology into Iran, including to the regime’s nuclear and military establishment.

Ghomi, 63, is the founder, owner and CEO of Faraz Pardaz Rayaneh Co. Ltd., a Tehran-based computer networking company. Prosecutors say he used the company to acquire U.S.-origin networking, security and encryption equipment for Iranian customers without the required authorization from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

According to the Justice Department, Ghomi’s company supplied American-origin equipment to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the agency tied to Iran’s nuclear program, including centrifuge and uranium-enrichment work. Prosecutors also say the company supplied equipment to Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics and affiliated defense-electronics entities.

The alleged supply chain ran through familiar sanctions-evasion routes. DOJ says Ghomi used his own eBay and PayPal accounts for hundreds of purchases, directed goods to intermediaries in the UAE, and later negotiated directly with suppliers in Minnesota and Nebraska while routing the equipment through a UAE front company and on to Iran.

Federal investigators allege the scale was massive. From 2014 to 2018 alone, Ghomi allegedly arranged the smuggling of more than 250 metric tons of networking equipment into Iran, using freight forwarders and Dubai-based intermediaries to hide the true destination.

Prosecutors say he knew the exports were illegal and took steps to conceal them, including keeping his name off shipping paperwork, omitting invoices from shipments headed to Iran, and hiding U.S.-origin equipment inside larger shipments. In internal correspondence, Ghomi and alleged co-conspirators reportedly referred to Iran as “Motherland.”

DOJ alleges Ghomi moved more than $15 million from Iran into U.S. bank accounts and a construction escrow account, falsely reporting the funds to the IRS as a foreign inheritance. Prosecutors say the proceeds helped fund his Orange County mansion, which federal officials described as worth $35 million and said they will seek to seize.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli accused Ghomi of “aiding our declared enemies” by selling American-origin computer networking parts to Iran while earning millions in violation of U.S. sanctions law.

Ghomi is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted. DOJ stressed that the complaint is an allegation, not evidence, and that Ghomi is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.