Sheikhzadeh Facilitated Meeting Between Nuclear Scientist and Rouhani

U.S. prosecutors announced that a former advisor to Iran's UN mission had hired a nuclear scientist residing in the U.S. to meet with officials of the Islamic Republic and negotiate about the country's nuclear program. The prosecutor's reference is to Ahmad Sheikhzadeh, a former advisor to Iran's UN mission, who last December accepted charges of filing false tax returns and collaborating to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. According to Reuters on Friday (June 30), Sheikhzadeh's case does not contain criminal charges and will not lead to criminal punishment against him, but it has been raised to support U.S. prosecutors' request for a longer prison sentence for Sheikhzadeh due to his tax charges. He was convicted last November of tax evasion and attempting to violate sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities, but his charges are unrelated to the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. U.S. prosecutors have stated that Sheikhzadeh facilitated a meeting around 2005 between a U.S.-based nuclear scientist and Hassan Rouhani, the current president of Iran and former head of the Islamic Republic's nuclear file, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister. Steve Zissou, Sheikhzadeh's lawyer, stated that his client's only goal in attempting to establish relations between the two countries was to create peace between the parties. U.S. prosecutors have not disclosed the identity of this nuclear scientist, who they say is of Iranian nationality and worked at a nuclear facility in the U.S. According to these prosecutors, this nuclear scientist provided advice to the Islamic Republic for negotiations with other countries regarding its nuclear program. For example, he provided information about the number of centrifuges that Iran needs to achieve its nuclear goals to the country's officials. Assisting in disseminating Iran's public messages regarding its nuclear program has also been cited as another charge against Sheikhzadeh. According to Reuters, U.S. prosecutors have requested a prison sentence of up to four years and nine months for Ahmad Sheikhzadeh. However, it has been stated that, considering the documents presented against him in court on Friday, his sentence could be longer. According to Sheikhzadeh's lawyer, the final ruling for his client will be announced on July 17. In this report, Zissou has requested the court to postpone the ruling against Sheikhzadeh in light of the new documents presented. Ahmad Sheikhzadeh, an advisor to the Iranian UN mission, was accused by U.S. prosecutors in April 2016 in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, of violating sanctions against Iran. Initially, he did not accept his charges of violating sanctions, money laundering, and tax issues, claiming innocence. However, in December of that year, according to his lawyer Steve Zissou, he accepted his charges and agreed not to appeal the maximum sentence of five years and three months in a deal with the prosecution. According to Reuters, Sheikhzadeh also agreed to pay over $147,000. He was temporarily released from Brooklyn jail on March 25 last year on a $3 million cash bail and was under electronic monitoring as ordered by judicial authorities. The indictment against him emphasized that this individual did not inform the U.S. Treasury about his business relations with Iran, thus violating regulations regarding the control and restriction of economic relations between the two countries. According to the prosecution's documents, he had been receiving cash monthly payments as an advisor to the Iranian mission since 2008 and was saving this money in Citibank. Prosecutors also stated that Sheikhzadeh had reported his income to the U.S. tax authorities as less than the actual amount from 2008 to 2012.