The US government has charged a high profile political scientist with unlawfully being a paid secret agent of the government of Iran for more than a decade, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2021) The US government has charged a high profile political scientist with unlawfully being a paid secret agent of the government of Iran for more than a decade, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Tuesday.
"A criminal complaint was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn charging Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, also known as Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi, with acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)," the release said.
The Justice Department said Afrasiabi was also secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the country's mission at the United Nations Since at least 2007 to the present. Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN's official bank accounts since 2007, it said.
"Afrasiabi is a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Afrasiabi holds a PhD, and frequently publishes books and articles, and appears on English-language television programs discussing foreign relations matters, particularly Iran's relations with the United States," the release added.
Afrasiabi was arrested on Monday at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, and was scheduled to make his initial appearance on Tuesday in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, according to the release.
