A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government while employed as a contractor with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to the Department of Justice.
As The New York Post reported, Abouzar Rahmati, 42, of Great Falls, Virginia, entered his guilty plea Wednesday in federal court.
He admitted to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran within the United States from at least 2017 through 2024 without prior notification to the U.S. Attorney General, a legal requirement under federal law.
Former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor Abouzar Rahmati, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Great Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the United States without prior notification to… pic.twitter.com/7nWkUtn0m3
— Potkin Azarmehr (@potkazar) April 17, 2025
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Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Iran, previously served as a first lieutenant in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) between June 2009 and May 2010.
The IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
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According to court documents, Rahmati began offering his services to the Iranian government in August 2017.
He contacted a former colleague, now a senior Iranian official with ties to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and traveled to Iran later that year to meet with intelligence operatives.
Former FAA contractor pleads guilty to spying for Iran, sharing private info on US airports, energy industry https://t.co/ntY8tH8ZdP pic.twitter.com/AF5aIcTO3k
— New York Post (@nypost) April 17, 2025
Upon returning to the United States in early 2018, Rahmati began collecting and providing information to Iranian officials. He obtained employment with an FAA contractor, gaining access to sensitive information about the U.S. aviation sector.
The Justice Department said Rahmati downloaded at least 175 gigabytes of files, including sensitive, access-controlled documents from the FAA.
These files related to the National Aerospace System (NAS), Airport Surveillance Radar systems, and radio frequency data. He saved this material to removable media and took it to Iran in April 2022, where he handed it over to government officials.
Rahmati also gathered both public and private materials about the U.S. solar energy industry and provided them to the Office of the Vice President for Science and Technology in Iran.
Additionally, he shared information about U.S. airports, air traffic control towers, and solar panel systems with his brother in Iran. According to the DOJ, Rahmati intended for his brother to pass along the information to Iranian intelligence.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 26. Rahmati faces up to 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government and up to five years for conspiracy.
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