Telecom Consultant Pleads Guilty to Breaching OFAC Licenses

Farhad Nafeiy, a California-based telecommunications consultant, pleaded guilty this week to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he breached the scope of sanctions licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

DOJ said Nafeiy’s OFAC licenses allowed him to advise non-Iranian telecommunications companies on doing business with Iran, but they didn’t authorize him to provide any hardware, software or technology directly to Iran. Nafeiy “exceeded” the licenses when he sold $400,000 worth of software upgrades to telecommunications equipment in Iran, DOJ said, adding that Nafeiy “knew he exceeded these licenses when he did so.”

Nafeiy also was charged with and admitted to evading federal taxes when he failed to pay income tax on some of the proceeds from those sales, DOJ said. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 29.