Ex-FAA Contractor Admits to Sharing Private Info About U.S. Airports as Agent of Iran
A former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor has pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of Iran, providing “open source and non-public materials” to their government.
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Virginia, pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of Iran by pursuing an FAA job to gain access to information. From 2017 to 2024, Rahmati met with Iranian officials, communicated with security officials, and provided “non-public materials about the U.S. solar energy industry.”
According to the DOJ, it was Rahmati who offered his services to Iran:
In August 2017, Rahmati offered his services to the Iranian government through a senior Iranian government official who previously worked in Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and with whom Rahmati had previously attended university. Four months later, in December 2017, Rahmati traveled to Iran, where he met with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials and agreed to obtain information about the U.S. 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.
Rahmati provided information “relating to solar energy, solar panels, the FAA, U.S. airports, and U.S. air traffic control towers” to his brother in Iran, which was then provided to government officials. He also at one point provided information related to “the National Aerospace System (NAS), Airport Surveillance Radar systems, and radio frequency data.”
The former FAA contractor has sentencing scheduled for August where he could be hit with more than a decade for his conspiracy charges. The guilty plea comes amidst President Donald Trump’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran in which the president has warned military options are on the table should Iran not agree to never possess a nuclear weapon.
Watch above via Fox News.
