The founder of Iranian company and an engineering PhD Marketing Manager of a Boston-area microelectronics manufacturer were arrested and charged with Violating Export Control Laws in Conspiracy to Procure Sensitive U.S. Technology for Use in IRGC Military Drones
Mahdi Sadeghi, 42, a dual U.S.-Iranian national of Natick, Massachusetts, and Mohammad Abedini, 38, of Tehran, Iran, have been charged with conspiring to export sophisticated electronic components from the United States to Iran in violation of U.S. export control and sanctions laws.
Abedini is also charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), , that resulted in the deaths of three U.S. servicemembers who were killed by a one-way attack Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), also known as a drone, on a military base in Jordan.
Sadeghi was arrested and made his initial appearance Monday in the District of Massachusetts. Abedini was also arrested in Italy by Italian authorities at the request of the United States.
“Today, the Justice Department has charged, and our foreign partners haven taken into custody, Mohammad Abedini, who we allege supplied sensitive technology used by the Iranian military to kill three American servicemembers in Jordan earlier this year,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
“In addition, we have charged and arrested Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, for conspiring with Abedini to export sensitive U.S. technology to Iran.
According to court documents, Abedini is the founder and managing director of an Iranian company, San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co. (SDRA or SADRA), that manufactures navigation modules used in the IRGC’s military drone program. SDRA’s main business is the sale of a proprietary navigation system — known as the Sepehr Navigation System — to the IRGC, which the United States designated as an FTO on April 15, 2019. The primary application of SDRA’s Sepehr Navigation System is for use in UAVs, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles.
Sadeghi is currently employed by the Boston-area microelectronics manufacturer Analog Devices. and was one of the founders of Tacit Motion, a Massachusetts-based technology company that specializes in wearable sensors that provide kinetic monitoring for fitness applications.
As alleged in court documents, Abedini, Sadeghi, and others conspired to evade U.S. export control and sanctions laws by procuring U.S. origin goods, services, and technology from, among others, Analog Devices and causing those goods, services, and technology to be exported or otherwise supplied to Iran and, in particular, Abedini’s Iranian company, SDRA.
Upon completing his PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Michigan, Sadeghi founded Tacit Motion, according to his LinkedIn profile.
As further alleged, in or around 2016, Sadeghi traveled to Iran to request funding for U.S. Tacit Motion from the Iranian National Elites Foundation (INEF), which is an Iranian governmental organization whose main purpose is to recognize, organize, and support Iran’s elite national talents. In exchange for funding for Tacit Motion, which Sadeghi’s company ultimately received from the INEF, Sadeghi and others created a second company in Iran (Iranian Company 1).
Shortly after forming Iranian Company 1, Sadeghi, through Iranian Company 1, entered into a contract with SDRA for the purchase of SDRA’s technology. It is also alleged that, since in or around 2016, on multiple occasions, Sadeghi has helped Abedini procure U.S. export-controlled electronic components for Abedini’s use in Iran.
In March of 2019 Sadeghi joined Analog Devices, as an "application engineer in Autonomous Inertial Navigation Technology Group, part of Transportation and Safety Business Unit of ADI, focusing on Ultra-Low Noise (ULN) and Ultra-High Bandwidth (UHB) MEMS inertial sensor technology, and Condition-based Monitoring (CbM) applications," according to his LinkedIn profile. Seventeen months later he became a Marketing Manager in the MEMS technology group.
Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology in inertial sensing refers to the integration of miniaturized mechanical and electronic components on a single silicon chip to measure motion-related parameters such as acceleration, angular velocity, or orientation.
Due to U.S. laws restricting exports to Iran, Abedini established a Switzerland front company for SDRA, Illumove SA. With Sadeghi’s assistance, Abedini, through Illumove, entered into a contract with Analog Devices to develop a mechanism to evaluate U.S. Analog Devices’s electronic components, including sophisticated semiconductors.
Sadeghi and Abedini subsequently caused U.S.-origin goods, services, and technology to be transferred to Iran, through Illumove, for the benefit of SDRA. Certain of the electronic components that Abedini obtained through Illumove were the same types of electronic components used in SDRA’s Sepehr Navigation System.
Abedini is also charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the IRGC, specifically, the IRGC Aerospace Force, which is the strategic missile, air, and space force within the IRGC. Since at least in or about 2014, SDRA has had multiple projects with the IRGC Aerospace Force, including projects for guided rockets and integrated navigation systems. As alleged, between 2021 and 2022, approximately 99% of SDRA’s sales of the Sepehr Navigation System, which are used in IRGC one-way attack drones, were to the IRGC’s Aerospace Force.
On Jan. 28, three U.S. service members were killed, and more than forty others were injured, in a drone attack by IRGC-backed militants on a military base located in northern Jordan, known as Tower 22. According to court documents, FBI analysis of the drone that was recovered from the site of the attack showed that the drone was an Iranian Shahed UAV and that the navigation system used in the drone was the Sepehr Navigation System, which was manufactured by Abedini’s company, SDRA.
Sadeghi and Abedini were charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economics Powers Act, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, three years supervised release, and a fine of up to $1 million. Abedini was also charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, resulting in death, and one count of provision and attempted provision of material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, resulting in death, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison, lifetime supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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