News & Updates

LOS ANGELES – A federal grand jury has indicted two Iranian men with participating in a conspiracy to procure and illegally send export-controlled computer servers to Iran.

PHILADELPHIA – First Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Thomas Harris Jr., 27, of Croydon, PA was arrested and charged by Indictment with multiple firearms trafficking offenses stemming from his scheme to sell almost 40 guns to a buyer on the island of St. Lucia. Specifically, the defendant was charged with making false statements to a federal firearm licensee, dealing in firearms without a license, delivery of firearms to a common carrier without written notice, and smuggling goods from the United States.

The United States has seized “Aletejahtv.com” and “Aletejahtv.org,” two websites, which were unlawfully utilized by Kata’ib Hizballah, a Specially Designated National and a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“Once again we see designated foreign terrorist organizations turning to the internet to push their message and recruit followers for their violent causes,” said John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “We will continue to fight terror recruitment and propaganda efforts in the digital world, as we do elsewhere.”

LOS ANGELES – Federal authorities this morning arrested four defendants across the country on charges alleging a civilian employee of the United States Navy downloaded technical drawings and manuals related to U.S. military weapons systems and sold the items to a Newport Beach company, which later resold the documents to domestic and foreign customers.

Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Jonathan Carson, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement (“OEE”), announced the arrests today of CHONG SIK YU, a/k/a “Chris Yu,” and YUNSEO LEE. YU and LEE are charged with conspiring to unlawfully export dual-use electronics components, in violation of the Export Control Reform Act, and to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering.

PROVIDENCE – The president of a California-based electronics distribution company, his company and an employee have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Providence, Rhode Island, on charges they participated in a conspiracy to conceal information from the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection as part of a scheme to illegally export chemicals manufactured and/or distributed by a Rhode Island-based company to a technology company in China. The company is on a U.S.

CONCORD - Aiden Davidson, a/k/a Hamed Aliabadi, 32, of Brighton, Massachusetts, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for smuggling goods from the United States to Iran in violation of the U.S. embargo on trade with Iran, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today.

CONCORD - Aiden Davidson, a/k/a Hamed Aliabadi, 32, of Tennessee, pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court to smuggling goods from the United States to Iran, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today.

ALBANY, NEW YORK - Mahin Mojtahedzadeh, age 74, and a citizen of Iran, was sentenced today to time served (443 days in jail) for conspiring to unlawfully export gas turbine parts from the United States to Iran.

Assistant Attorney General of National Security John C. Demers and United States Attorney Erica H. MacDonald for the District of Minnesota today announced the sentencing of Negar Ghodskani, 40, to 27 months in prison for her participation in a conspiracy to illegally export controlled technology from the United States to Iran. Ghodskani, who pleaded guilty on Aug. 9, 2019, was sentenced this morning before United States District Judge Joan N. Ericksen in Minneapolis, Minnesota.