A U.S. citizen originally from Iran this week pleaded guilty to spying for the Iranian government while he worked for a Federal Aviation Administration contractor.
Abouzar Rahmati, 42, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Great Falls, Virginia resident, gathered intelligence for Iran from December 2017 through June 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
According to the DOJ, during that period, Rahmati was “communicating with Iranian intelligence officers and government officials using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtaining employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtaining open-source and non-public materials about the U.S. solar energy industry and providing it to Iranian intelligence officers.”
Rahmati “offered his services” to a senior Iranian government official, whom he knew from college, starting in August 2017. In December of that year, he traveled to Iran and met with other officials, agreeing to provide them with U.S. solar energy industry information, the DOJ said.
During his work for an unnamed FAA contractor, Rahmati downloaded 172 GB of files from the company. The files included “sensitive access-controlled FAA documents related to the National Aerospace System, NAS Airport Surveillance Radar systems, and radio frequency data,” which he delivered to Iranian officials in April 2022.
He also provided information on solar energy, airports, and air traffic control operations in the U.S. to his brother in Iran to pass on to intelligence officials.
According to court documents, Rahmati was previously a first lieutenant in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from 2009 to 2010.
Rahmati, who will be sentenced on August 26, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the U.S. He faces up to 10 years in prison for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and up to five years for conspiracy.
