Overview

• A U.S. district judge sentenced Abouzar Rahmati, 43, of Great Falls, Virginia, to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
• Rahmati pleaded guilty on April 16, 2025, to acting as an agent of the Iranian government without prior notification to the Attorney General and to conspiracy.
• Court filings say he worked with Iranian officials from 2017 to 2024, used an academic cover for communications, and secured FAA contractor access to non-public aviation information.
• DOJ said he downloaded at least 172 GB of files, carried them to Iran in April 2022, and later sent additional FAA, airport, air traffic control, and solar materials to be passed to Iranian intelligence through his brother.
• The FBI’s Washington Field Office led the investigation with assistance from the FAA’s counterintelligence office, and authorities have not revealed the contractor employer or Rahmati’s job role.