The U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit to seize about $584,000 in Tether cryptocurrency linked to 39-year-old Iranian national Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, CEO of Sanat Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak, due to his role in the IRGC drone program.
On Thursday, September 12, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced that this Iranian company had been producing Sepehr navigation systems for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which were used in drones and guided missiles.
The Attorney’s Office stated that between 2021 and 2022, about 99% of the sales of this navigation system went to the IRGC Aerospace Force, where it was used in one-way suicide drones.
Earlier, on May 6, a U.S. federal judge denied bail to Mehdi Mohammadsadeghi, who is awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in a deadly drone attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan.
Prosecutors also linked the technologies produced by Sanat Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak to the January 2024 drone attack on the U.S. military base in northern Jordan, known as “Tower 22.”
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and more than 40 injured in that attack.
Investigations revealed that the drone used was an Iranian Shahed model, and its navigation system had been produced by this company.
Under U.S. law, all assets belonging to individuals or entities involved in planning or carrying out terrorist acts against the United States or its citizens are subject to confiscation.
According to the Massachusetts Attorney’s Office, the asset forfeiture case is being pursued by Carol E. Head, chief of the Asset Recovery Unit, while the criminal case is being handled in coordination with Justice Department prosecutors and the counterterrorism and counterintelligence divisions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The statement emphasized that all allegations in this case remain at the accusation stage, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Arrested in Tehran: Mystery Surrounds Detention
On July 9, the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that Abedini had worked in a drone research laboratory at a Swiss university that had been funded by the European Union and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Innovation.
The German-language daily wrote that his activities helped Tehran gain access to advanced Western technology for its drone program.
The Abedini–Sala swap
Abedini, 39, a Tehran resident, is the founder and CEO of Sanat Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak, which builds navigation modules for the IRGC drone program.
He had previously been charged in the United States with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, namely the IRGC Aerospace Force.
He was arrested in Milan, Italy, in December 2024 at the request of the U.S., but was released in January 2025 after Iran’s regime detained Cecilia Sala, an Italian journalist, just three days after Abedini’s arrest.
Many have described the arrest of Cecilia Sala and her exchange for Mohammad Abedini as the latest example of the Iranian regime’s policy of hostage-taking and blackmail.
