Niloufar Bahadorifar, 46, is charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, structuring fraudulent deposits, and conspiracy to launder money. Since at least approximately 2019, the Government of Iran has allegedly lured several expatriate Iranian dissidents to locations where they were arrested or kidnapped and sent to Iran for imprisonment and execution.
Bahadorifar, a California resident, was arrested there July 1 on charges from another indictment. He allegedly provided financial services to the foreign nationals in violation of the sanctions on Iran for upward of five years. Farahani, Khazein, Sadeghi, and Noori live in Iran and have not been taken into custody, according to the release. Farahani is described as an Iranian intelligence official, and the other three co-conspirators are referred to as “Iranian intelligence assets.”
