GREAT FALLS, Va. — A former Federal Aviation Administrator has been indicted for allegedly acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the U.S. and conspiring to do so.
Abouzar Rahmati, 42, is a naturalized American citizen who lives in Great Falls. Between at least December 2017 and June 2024, Rahmati reportedly conspired with and acted on the behalf of Iranian government officials and intelligence operatives, according to an indictment.
“As alleged, the defendant conspired with Iranian officials and intelligence operatives, even lying to obtain employment as a U.S. government contractor only to then share sensitive government materials with Iran,” Matthew G. Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said.
Rahmati was born in Iran and lived there through university, where he earned both a bachelors and masters degree. He moved to the U.S. to earn an additional masters and PhD at an American university.
He first offered his services to the Iranian government in August 2017, by reaching out to someone he attended university with who was a senior Iranian government official who previously worked in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the indictment says. Four months later, on a trip to Iran, Rahmati reportedly agreed to obtain and provide information about the U.S. solar energy industry to Iranian officials. These discussions would happen, they decided, under a cover story that he was discussing research with fellow academics, the indictment says.
He returned to the U.S. in early 2018 and began sending non-public and open-source materials back to Iran. He applied for multiple jobs that would give him access to sensitive information and was eventually hired in January 2019 by a company with an FAA contract related to the power and electrical architecture of the National Airspace System (NAS). In order to get the job, he denied his military service with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He served for just under a year as a first lieutenant in the IRGC, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in April 2019.
Rahmati allegedly downloaded thousands of documents related to the NAS contract and brought the documents to Iran on a USB drive in April 2022. These documents, according to the press release, would give a person a reasonable understanding of the configuration of the NAS power and electrical architecture.
After returning to the U.S., Rahmati reportedly continued to send documents to his brother in Iran, who could pass the files on to Iranian intelligence. The files included information on solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports and U.S. air traffic control towers, according to the indictment.
“This alleged betrayal not only undermines our national security but also puts U.S. jobs and livelihoods at risk,” Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said. “We will not tolerate any actions that compromise U.S.-based sensitive information and are committed to ensuring that justice is served swiftly and decisively.”
Rahmati made his initial appearance in front of a grand jury in D.C. on Friday.
