FAA contractor pleads guilty to spying for Iran

A naturalized U.S. citizen living in Great Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to working with Iranian government and intelligence officials on their behalf in the U.S. as a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between 2017 and 2024.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the U.S. without prior notification to the Attorney General.

Rahmati previously was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to May 2010. The IRGC is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. government.

Court documents show that from at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials on their behalf in the U.S.

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During that period, Rahmati met with Iranian intelligence in Iran, communicated with Iranian authorities using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtained employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive, non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtained and provided open-source and non-public materials about the solar energy industry in the U.S. to intelligence officers.

The DOJ said Rahmati offered his services to Iran in August 2017 through a former colleague who was a senior Iranian government official who previously worked at the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Rahmati traveled to Iran four months later and met with intelligence operatives and government officials, the DOJ said. He also agreed to gather and provide Iranian officials with information about the solar industry in the U.S.

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When he returned to the U.S. in early 2018, Rahmati obtained private and open-source materials related to the U.S. solar industry, then provided them to the office of Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology.

While working as an FAA contractor in the U.S., Rahmati downloaded at least 175 GB of files, including sensitive access-controlled FAA documents relating to the National Aerospace System (NAS), NAS Airport Surveillance Radar systems and radio frequency data, the DOJ said.

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Rahmati stored the files on removable media, which he took to Iran in April 2022 and provided to government officials, according to the DOJ.

He also provided additional information about solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control towers to his brother living in Iran in April 2022, the DOJ added, so his brother could provide the files to intelligence officials on Rahmati’s behalf.

Rahmati is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 26, and he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for acting as an agent of a foreign government, and up to five years in prison for conspiracy.

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.