The United States District Court of the Southern District of California has denied the motion of a criminal defendant, Mohammad Reza Nazemzadeh, to suppress statements made by him in a variety of communications with other individuals and with law enforcement. Nazemzadeh was indicted for seeking to export medical devices to Iran. Nazemzadeh is a post doctoral research fellow in the Department of Radiology Oncology at the University of Michigan who is residing in the U.S. pursuant to an H1B Visa. Nazemzadeh is accused of seeking to export medical devices, including MRI coils, to Iran without a license from the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). According to information submitted by the government in this case Nazemzadeh knew an OFAC license was to be obtained for these products but did not seek such a license.

In his motion Nazemzadeh stated that the statements should be suppressed because the scope of the warrant used to procure his emails was overly broad and in violation of the Fourth Amendment, that he required a translator for his post arrest interview and was not provided with one, that the Miranda warnings given were not valid, and that he was not afforded counsel after he requested counsel. The court found that none of the defendant’s arguments were valid based on the factual circumstances presented.

Part of the evidence that Nazemzadeh sought to suppress was recorded communications between Nazemzadeh and an undercover law enforcement agent posing as a medical device salesperson. In those communications, the undercover agent stated that exports of humanitarian goods to Iran were allowed, but required a license from OFAC. Nazemzadeh responded that he would get the license later, but for purposes of the export they should just send it to the Netherlands first. When the undercover agent told him that would also require a license, Nazemzadeh responded that sometimes the company in the Netherlands would just keep the items and not forward them on. Later, Nazemzadeh told the undercover agent that he shouldn’t worry about whether or not the coils were returned, because they could change the paperwork to show that it wasn’t being returned from Iran. In addition to this, Nazemzadeh also made a number of incriminating states during a post arrest interview in which he signed a waiver of rights and was interviewed voluntarily.

I have handled a few of these Iran sanctions criminal cases and have followed many others. Statements made by the defendants in these cases are almost always damning. It amazes me that despite the fact that it is common knowledge that you should retain an attorney immediately upon being arrested and not speak to law enforcement without a lawyer present, that defendants continue to talk to law enforcement agents as if they can talk their way out of the situation. What perhaps is even more perplexing though is the fact that Nazemzadeh knew there was a licensing requirement and that OFAC does issue licenses for these types of exports and yet chose to not obtain the license. Obtaining an OFAC license for export of medical devices is not particularly difficult. No one should ever have to go jail for exporting medical devices to Iran, because OFAC makes it fairly easy to apply for a license to do so. Nevertheless, Nazemzadeh is facing prosecution for his attempted exports of MRI coils and all of the statements he made to law enforcement are going to be allowed into evidence.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrariassociatespc.com.