April 21, 2017
An Iranian-Canadian man has been arrested just inside the United States for smuggling missile testing systems to Iran.
Court documents show Ghobad Ghasempour, who was born in Iran, was arrested last month in Washington State following a federal investigation that spanned several years.
A charging document says Ghasempour was the mastermind behind a scheme to help his father’s friends in Iran launder money and illegally import goods into the country. It says Ghasempour worked with two other men to route restricted items through China and into Iran.
It says the scheme culminated with plans to ship equipment used to calibrate military-grade navigation devices, including missile technology.
The scheme was set up in 2011 with Ghasempour creating front companies to shuffle money and products between countries and but leaving day-to-day operations to the Chinese man.
A man in Iran arranged deliveries and money laundering for an Iranian government engineering company and other government agencies, according to the document filed by an investigator for the US Department of Homeland Security.
It said Ghasempour contacted his Chinese partner in 2012 saying they could make money helping his father’s friend, who ran a paper factory in Iran and was having trouble importing paper from Brazil due to trade sanctions, the document says.
The arrangement allegedly used Iranian oil money to pay for paper supplies in order to circumvent restrictions related to moving money out of Iran.
Eventually, Ghasempour started co-coordinating other purchases, the document says.
“Ghasempour initiated, planned and directed the scheme, in addition to registering websites and email accounts for some of the front companies he established,” according to the affidavit.
US Homeland Security was alerted after a shipment of a thin-film measuring system was seized by the Netherlands, prompting the US to investigate one of the companies created by Ghasempour, the document says.
The documents do not say when Ghasempour arrived in Canada, where he lives there or what his immigration status is.
