An Iranian man who chairs a Maltese bank has been arrested in the United States on charges that he participated in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran and funnel more than $115 million paid under a Venezuelan construction contract through the U.S. financial system, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, 38, was indicted on six counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Hasheminejad could face a sentence of up to 125 years in prison.
Hasheminejad, chairman of the Maltese-registered Pilatus Bank, was arrested on Monday in Dulles, Virginia, according to court papers.
Prosecutors said Hasheminejad's family controlled an Iranian conglomerate called Stratus Group, which had international business operations and led a project to construct thousands of housing units in Venezuela.
The project stemmed from agreements signed by Iran and Venezuela in 2004 and 2005 calling for cooperation between the two governments in constructing housing units in the South American country.
The indictment said that in 2006, an Iranian company incorporated by Stratus, the Iranian International Housing Corporation, entered into a $476 million deal with a Venezuelan state-owned energy company to build 7,000 housing units.
Hasheminejad belonged to a committee overseeing the project's execution, prosecutors said.
They said that as part of the project he took steps to evade U.S. economic sanctions by concealing the role of Iran and Iranian parties in payments sent through the U.S. banking system.
"As alleged, Ali Sadr Hasheminejad created a network of front companies and foreign bank accounts to mask Iranian business dealings in Venezuela and evade U.S. sanctions," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement.
The Venezuelan energy company made $115 million in payments to Iranian International Housing Corporation using entities in Switzerland and Turkey to conceal the Iranian connection to the funds, prosecutors said.
