Pardoned by U.S., Iranians seek new start

Three involved in the deal with Tehran say they committed errors but no crimes.

HOUSTON — Tooraj Faridi liked to think of himself as a respectable businessman, a father of two and a karate instructor at the local YMCA. All that was in jeopardy nine months ago when a SWAT team descended on his leafy suburban street of carefully tended brick ranch houses.

The predawn raid resulted in the arrest of Faridi, 46, vice president of Smart Power Systems Inc., a Houston-based microelectronics company that federal authorities said had violated U.S. restrictions on doing business with Iran.

Faridi’s home and business were searched. At his first court appearance federal prosecutors told a judge that FBI wiretaps and email surveillance showed that Faridi’s company had sold dangerous technology to Iran.

“They tried to make it seem like it was this big act of terrorism,” said Faridi’s attorney, Kent Schaffer.

Faridi, his uncle and another Iranian American business partner were among seven U.S. prisoners and criminal defendants pardoned over the weekend in exchange for the release of American detainees held in Iran.

Faridi, whose case had not gone to trial, worries now that he’ll never get a chance to prove his innocence. “He feels a little bit of regret that he didn’t have a chance to clear his name,” Schaffer said.

Born in Tehran, Faridi has lived in Houston for about 15 years, becoming a U.S. citizen while working at the business started in 1984 by his uncle, an electrical engineer selling commercialgrade surge protectors.

His uncle also ran Faratel Corp., a Tehran-based company that prosecutors said was a sister company to Smart Power Systems.

According to a federal grand jury indictment, Faratel designs and builds uninterruptible power supplies for several Iranian government agencies, including the Ministry of Defense and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

U.S. prosecutors alleged the technology was used in a range of military systems, including cruise missiles. From 2010 and 2015, the procurement network in the U.S. allegedly shipped about $24 million worth of parts to Iran through Taiwan and Turkey, according to court records.

Payment from Iran was procured through “a variety of intricate illicit techniques,” according to the indictment.

Faridi contended that although his company shipped parts to Faratel, he never dealt with the Iranian government or intentionally violated U.S. sanctions.

Faridi was initially released on $75,000 bond, but his uncle, Bahram Mechanic, 69, also of Houston, remained in detention, as did his business partner Khosrow Afghahi, 72, of Los Angeles. Both maintained they were innocent.

Mechanic became a U.S. citizen five years ago, and said the Iranian government had blacklisted him ever since from doing business with it. But he had a record in the U.S.: He had settled similar sanctions-related export violations in the 1990s after being sentenced to five years’ probation for another criminal export conviction in the 1980s.

Mechanic said he had tried to comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran, and like his nephew, contended that he was guilty of nothing more than mistakes.

“The laws are very confusing; they change all the time. Mr. Mechanic has had lawyers over the years, but it’s very difficult to keep up with them,” attorney Joel Androphy said.

Federal authorities saw it as a serious breach. The spread of sensitive technologies to Iran “remains a clear threat to U.S. national security,” Assistant FBI Director Randall Coleman said when the indictment was unsealed in April.

The businessmen were awaiting trial when, two months ago, Mechanic was contacted by Fariborz Jahansoozan, an official at the Iranian interests section in Washington, Iran’s de facto embassy.

Jahansoozan flew to Houston to meet with Mechanic and asked whether he was interested in being part of a prisoner swap.

Mechanic wanted to know more: What would the deal require? Would the charges be dismissed? Would he have to return to Iran?

“It was like a lottery,” Androphy said. He advised Mechanic to take the deal.

“We always felt he was innocent, but the problem is he’s 69 years old and in jail. We thought we could win the case in court, but there’s a prejudice against Iranians in the U.S., and you don’t know if you’re going to get a fair jury, even though he’s a U.S. citizen,” Androphy said.

When Jahansoozan returned to Houston to meet with Mechanic again on Jan. 7, he had news about the deal. “This is becoming a reality,” he told him.

The trio were sworn to secrecy, and didn’t know the conditions of the swap until Jan. 13, when federal prosecutors notified them of the pardons.

By 4:30 a.m. Sunday, all three men were pardoned, timed to coincide with when the freed U.S. prisoners cleared Iranian airspace.

Like his uncle, Faridi plans to stay in Houston to help run the family business as he did before, said Schaffer, Faridi’s attorney.

But Faridi knows his life has been forever changed. “People are already starting to say, well, we know you got a pardon from the president, but we still don’t know if you’re guilty of what you’re accused of,” Schaffer said.

“On the other hand, he no longer has to live under the stress of having to go to trial and potential incarceration,” he said. “He can go on with his life.”