Former FAA contractor pleads guilty to working for Iranian government, faces 10 years in prison

According to the Department of Justice, Abouzar Rahmati, 42, who is a naturalized US citizen, worked with the Iranian government from December 2017 through June 2024 by acting "on their behalf in the United States, including by meeting with Iranian intelligence officers in Iran, 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 approached the Iranian government in August 2017 to offer his service and made contact through a senior Iranian government official to do so. According to the New York Post, Rahmati is also a former 1st Lt in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is designated a terrorist group in the US.

He then traveled to Iran in December later that year to meet with "Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials" where he "agreed to obtain information about the US solar energy industry, to provide that information to Iranian officials, and to conduct future communications under a cover story based on purported discussions about research with fellow academics," the DOJ added.

He returned to the US in 2018 and obtained various information from the solar industry as well as "exploited his employment as an FAA contractor" by downloading files of information related to the National Aerospace System and Airport Surveillance Radar systems in the US to share with the Iranian government.

Rahmati's sentencing is scheduled for August 26, where he is facing up to 10 years in prison for the crimes.