Alleged Iranian spies linked to powerful figures within the regime have been accused of infiltrating Silicon Valley. Last month, a federal grand jury indicted three Iranian software engineers, accusing them of stealing trade secrets from major tech companies, including Google.
Two of the accused are sisters — Samaneh Ghandali, 41, and Soroor Ghandali, 32, were charged along with Mohammadjavad Khosravi, 40, Samaneh's husband. According to the Department of Justice, the trio used their jobs at unnamed tech firms to gain access to confidential and sensitive information. The tech workers allegedly took confidential and sensitive documents, including trade secrets linked to processor security, cryptography, and other technologies, from Google and other companies.
Iran Spies in US
Authorities say they then secretly removed this information from the companies without authorization. They are also accused of sending the confidential data to other locations, including Iran, according to the indictment. All three have pleaded not guilty.
The sisters' father, Shahabeddin Ghandali, is considered an insider within Iran's ruling establishment and previously served as the head of the Teachers Investment Fund Corporation.
In 2016, he was arrested and charged in connection with a $2.5 billion embezzlement case, along with fraud involving Iran's Bank Sarmayeh, according to reports. However, while he was arrested, it remains unclear whether he was ever fully prosecuted, even though others tied to the case were.
Critics of the Iranian government in the United States believe these family ties may have played a role in enabling the alleged espionage.
"The issue is risk, access, and vulnerability," said Iranian human rights activist Lawdan Bazargan, who heads the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists.
"When individuals connected to powerful networks in an authoritarian system enter universities and research centers, they gain access not only to advanced technology but also to professional networks and institutional trust. In certain cases ... access can be abused."
There have been other instances where people linked to Iran's government have allegedly found their way into American institutions.
Infiltrated by Spies
One such case involved Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, an Iranian-American political science professor who taught at Harvard and other top universities. In 2021, he was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Prosecutors alleged that for more than a decade, he had been quietly working on behalf of the Iranian government and its mission to the United Nations, helping to promote and spread their messaging.
Afrasiabi — who frequently contributed to the New York Times — received more than $250,000 through checks issued from the Iranian mission's official bank account starting in 2007, according to a federal complaint.
The complaint also states that he had been covered by the mission's employee health insurance plan since 2011.
"Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by the Iranian government to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation," claimed the Department of Justice in a press release.
The document also alleges that Afrasiabi reached out to an unnamed congressman and offered guidance to Iran's ambassador at the United Nations on possible "retaliation" after the U.S. airstrike that killed Major General Qasem Soleimani.
Soleimani, who headed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in a U.S. strike near Baghdad on January 3, 2020.
Afrasiabi also allegedly proposed the Iranian government "end all inspections and end all information on Iran's nuclear activities pending a [United Nations Security Council] condemnation of [the United States'] illegal crime" of killing Soleimani, according to the complaint. Afrasiabi claimed the move would "strike fear in the heart of [the] enemy."
Afrasiabi has denied the charges, describing himself as a "consultant" to Iran's UN mission during a televised interview last year.
He also claimed he was being targeted for political reasons by the first Trump zadministration and referred to himself as "an agent of peace committed to US-Iran reconciliation and peace and dialogue."
President Joe Biden later granted Afrasiabi a full pardon as part of a prisoner swap in 2023, and he is still believed to be living in the United States.
In a separate case, Iranian-American Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar pleaded guilty in 2019 to acting as a foreign agent for Iran. Federal prosecutors said he carried out surveillance on Jewish organizations at the University of Chicago, where his brother teaches Islamic studies.
Authorities also alleged that he monitored Iranian-Americans linked to the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a militant group opposed to Iran's government.
