A 37-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to evading U.S. financial sanctions by using cryptocurrency exchanges and digital payment applications to send about $150,000 to people in Iran.
Arash Einolghozati, who immigrated to the U.S. from Iran and became a “lawful permanent resident” in 2016, was arrested in Waialua by the FBI on Oct.18, 2024. He was charged with one count of violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, according to federal court records.
He was released in 2024 on a $50,000 unsecured bond and ordered to stay on Oahu unless he was meeting with attorneys in New York.
Einolghozati was charged again by felony information July 1, and on Monday entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. In exchange for
his guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed not to pursue additional investigation and charges. He faces up
to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000 when he is sentenced
Oct. 29.
The U.S.Attorney’s Office and Einolghozati’s attorney, Caroline M. Elliot, declined comment.
According to federal
authorities, from March 2017 and until April 2022, Einolghozati allegedly engaged in and caused “the exportation, re-exportation, sale, and supply of goods, technology, and services, namely, the transfer of funds …” to Iran or the Iranian government without authorization.
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The U.S. has maintained
a trade embargo with Iran since 1995. Iranians have used cryptocurrency and other avenues to try to evade U.S. sanctions imposed since the start of
the war with the regime in February.
Einolghozati, who did not have a U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations license, is banned from transferring currency or digital assets such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum, by using TransferWise, Paypal, Wallex, Nobitex, and Abantether Iranian exchanges, or any other financial companies who manage money internationally, according to federal court
records.
Wallex aka Vallex, Nobitex, and AbanTether were online cryptocurrency exchange platforms based in Iran that offered financial services to individuals in Iran that Einolghozati allegedly used.
“Each company’s website publicly advertised that its purpose was to help individuals in Iran evade U.S. sanctions,” according to an affidavit written by an FBI agent.
On June 2, OFAC sanctioned Nobitex, Iran’s largest digital asset exchange, along with three other Iranian digital asset exchanges, according to a U.S. Department of the Treasury news release.
“While Iran’s economy is in free fall, the regime has chosen to co-opt digital asset technologies for its own corrupt agenda, including evading sanctions and transferring wealth out of the country,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, in a statement June 2.
Nobitex has provided “significant support to the regime,” processing more than 50% of all Iranian digital asset inflows in 2025 and facilitating payments tied to Iran’s terrorist activities, sanctions evasion
efforts, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps linked transactions, including activity associated with IRGC-affiliated ransomware actors, according to treasury officials.
Federal prosecutors
allege that Einolghozati sent money transfers or cryptocurrency, from Hawaii and other places in the U.S. to Iran, both “directly and indirectly through financial accounts” belonging to other people.
Starting in 2016 he allegedly made multiple money transfers for the “purpose of transferring U.S. dollars to Iranian Rials.”
The original complaint
in the case includes e-mails and communications that were translated from Farsi to English.
In one alleged set of transactions from 2016, Einolghozati asks a person in Iran identified as “Individual -3” in federal court records, “Can I send you dollars in some way and you give it to someone in Iran?”
In one exchange with an individual he allegedly helped move money, Einolghozati asks the man, “Haji, what is the law to send (money) directly to a financial institution in Iran from America.”
A person identified as
“Individual -3” in federal court records replied, “It is banned.”
Einolghozati responded, “Does it mean whether it is being fixed or not?”
“No, it is not,” replied the alleged accomplice. “It is the initial sanction.”
Federal prosecutors documented seven transactions between “Individual-3” and Einolghozati between 2016 and 2019. In 2021 and 2022 the pair allegedly used Coinbase to move cryptocurrency worth more than $18,000.
The FBI documented
72 cryptocurrency
transactions allegedly done
by Einolghozati with a
person in Iran known as
“Individual-4” in federal court records. The pair moved more than $108,000 using Einolghozati’s Coinbase account.
When questioned by FBI agents, Einolghozati allegedly told them he never “knowingly sent any cryptocurrency to Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges.”
He sent cryptocurrency to “Individual-3” as re-payment for a bet that he lost on the value of Bitcoin, according to federal court
documents. He sent cryptocurrency to “Individual-4” to pay for “Individual-4”and his wife’s education and he sent money to wallets that he believed were investment vehicles but didn’t know they were in Iran.