Two Men Accused of Spying for Iranian Regime Plead Guilty, One Surveilled Chicago Chabad
Two Iranian men have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from surveillance activities on behalf of the Iranian regime, according to the Justice Department (DOJ) on Nov. 6.
Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 39, and Majid Ghorbani, 60, have pleaded guilty to charges related to spying and collecting identifying information of American citizens and members of a group that held activities denouncing the Iranian regime, Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), in the United States. The MEK are made up of individuals who had opposed the 1979 Iranian Revolution and were exiled from Iran.
Doostdar, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who was born in Long Beach, California, pleaded guilty to one count of acting as an agent of the government of Iran without notifying the Attorney General and one count of conspiring to violate that statute on Oct. 8. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. Meanwhile, Ghorbani, an Iranian citizen and a resident of California, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, and faces a maximum of 20 years.
Doostdar, who resides outside the United States, began his surveillance activities in 2017. He alleged carried out surveillance activities on the Rohr Chabad House, a Jewish institution located in Chicago in July 2017, where he photographed security features surrounding the facilities, according to a criminal complaint.
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