A Potomac businessman who was sentenced to eight years in federal prison in 2013 for conspiring with Iranians to help them launch a satellite from Russia was among the seven Iranians released as part of a prisoner swap with Iran that freed four Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.
Nader Modanlo, who was 53 when he was convicted in 2013, is a U.S. citizen who was born in Iran and has worked in the satellite industry since 1993. According to court files, he received a degree in engineering from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors said Modanlo used his connections in the satellite industry to help Iranian officials launch a communications satellite with a camera from Russia in October 2005. The Iranians paid Modanlo and his company about $10 million in the scheme, which violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Iran Trade Embargo, according to the federal criminal complaint. The satellite is believed to be the first ever launched by Iran, according to American officials.
“Nader Modanlo violated the law by helping Iran launch communications satellites,” U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement after Modanlo’s 2013 conviction. “The Iran Trade Embargo prohibits Americans from supplying goods, technology and services to Iran directly or indirectly.”
President Barack Obama offered Modanlo and six other Iranians charged with violating U.S trade regulations clemency as part of an agreement Saturday that freed four Americans who have been imprisoned in Iran. The names of the Iranians were released by the Iranian Fars News Agency, although The Department of Justice declined to confirm their identities, according to The Washington Post.
The Americans released included the reporter Rezaian, the Post’s Iran bureau chief, who had been imprisoned in Iran since July 2014 when he was charged with espionage. The other Americans released by Iran in the deal include Amir Hekmati, a 32-year-old Marine from Flint, Michigan, Saeed Abedini, a 35-year-old pastor from Boise, Idaho, and Nosratollah Khosravi, who did not leave on the plane that left Iran Sunday and whose whereabouts remain a mystery, according to news reports.
