Negar Ghodskani at heart of US-Iran arms row

US authorities have accused a woman in Adelaide of evading nuclear sanctions by purchasing banned technology for Iran.

US authorities have accused an Australian-resident woman born in Iran of evading sanctions aimed at the Mid-East country’s nuclear program by using a front company based in Malaysia to purchase banned technology from companies in Minnesota and Massachusetts.

Negar Ghodskani, also known as Negar Kani, was arrested by Australian police in June and is fighting extradition from an ­Adelaide jail where she has been for six months, separating her from her newborn child and sparking a diplomatic row with Iran. She faces years in a US jail and deportation to Iran if convicted on fraud, smuggling and money-laundering charges related to her work for Iranian technology firm Fanamoj before she moved to Australia six years ago.

Backed by the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and QC Row­ena Orr, Ms Ghodskani has launched Federal Court legal proceedings seeking release on bail.

In US court papers, authorities claim that between December 2010 and March 2012 she and ­others used Malaysian front ­company Green Wave Telecommunication to buy technology from the US that America bans from being exported to Iran.

US authorities banned Fanamoj in October, accusing it of designing components for the Iranian military’s missile systems.

In an affidavit sworn in US criminal proceedings, US Assistant Attorney-General Charles Kovats Jr claims that in early 2012 Ms Ghodskani moved from Iran to Adelaide, where she took a job with an oil and gas consultancy.

In August 2015, a Minnesota grand jury indicted Ms Ghodskani on charges of conspiracy to defraud the US and two counts each of smuggling, making a false statement and money-­laundering. The dollar value of the goods involved — analog to digital converters and the like — is about $US63,000 ($80,280), but the charges she faces in the US carry 20-year jail sentences.

Ms Ghodskani’s arrest in June was “pursuant to an extradition request from the US”, a spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s Department said.

In Australian Federal Court proceedings lodged just before Christmas, Ms Ghodskani’s lawyers alleged South Australian magistrate Lynette Duncan acted unreasonably, illogically or irrationally at a hearing on ­December 20 by deciding she posed a risk of flight. “Our client is in custody as a result of that decision and is separated from her baby,” Ms Orr told Federal Court judge Jennifer Davies at an ­urgent hearing on the Friday morning before Christmas.

Counsel for the US, David Billington, told the court Ms Ghodskani was able to see her baby two hours a day on weekdays and up to 80 minutes a day on weekends.

Ms Orr told the court this was not enough and the situation was “dire” as her client was a suicide risk. The ruse the Americans claim Ms Ghodskani used to fool US companies into providing her with digital communications ­devices was simple. In emails ordering goods from the US companies, Ms Ghodskani allegedly represented herself as a Malaysia-based Green Wave employee.

Malaysian company records show the company was set up in 2009 with an address in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Bangsar. US investigators ­allege Ms Ghodskani was not in Bangsar but half a world away in Tehran.

Allegedly waiting for the goods in Malaysia was Ms Ghodskani’s co-accused Alireza Jalali, who worked for Green Wave 10 hours a week while studying at the University of Malaya.

He allegedly repacked the technology for shipment to Fana­moj in Tehran and “fabricated invoices that vastly understated the true value of the exported items to Malaysian Customs authorities,” Mr Kovats said in his affidavit.

A month ago, Mr Jalali admitted guilt to one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and agreed to be deported to Iran.

The ASRC didn’t respond to inquiries. DFAT declined to answer questions about how Ms Ghodskani came to be in ­Australia.