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In January 2021, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed a criminal complaint charging political scientist Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi with conspiring to act and acting as an unregistered agent of the Iranian government under FARA. While Afrasiabi built a public persona as a respected political science professor, author, and television commentator, DOJ alleged that he was a secretly compensated employee of Tehran. Beginning in 2007, Afrasiabi received more than $265,000 in checks from U.S. bank accounts belonging to the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, and from at least 2011 he was enrolled in the Mission’s employee health insurance plan.

In exchange, the prosecution alleges that Afrasiabi carried out targeted political and media operations at the direction of Iranian diplomats. The most notable examples include his assistance to a U.S. Congressman in drafting a letter to President Obama proposing specific nuclear negotiation terms; he subsequently offered to brief congressional staff and shared hyperlinks to his articles advocating for lifting sanctions and recognizing Iran’s nuclear rights. Afrasiabi even got approval from Iranian diplomats before publishing articles, consulted them for talking points prior to media appearances, and edited official UN speeches given by Iran’s President and Foreign Minister. And when Al Jazeera put out a documentary blaming Iran for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, Afrasiabi pushed Iranian diplomats to threaten a $500 million lawsuit in an attempt to shut down the story.

The prosecution also uncovered private emails between Afrasiabi and Iran’s Foreign Minister exchanged in July 2020 when the Iranian UN Mission told Afrasiabi that they planned to terminate his employment including monthly pay and health benefits. Afrasiabi responded with a desperate and revealing plea in which he credited Tehran for his accomplishments including 1,500 articles, more than a dozen books, and frequent televised appearances, writing “[w]ithout support none of this would have been possible!” and “there is no way I can finish [my next book] if the support is ended in this horrible pandemic environment.” He also sent medical documentation of his ongoing kidney issues to top diplomats, asking them not to cut his health insurance.

Filings show extensive evidence that Afrasiabi was well-versed in FARA requirements. In 2011, Afrasiabi ran the idea of starting a political consulting firm in the U.S. to advise Tehran by an associate, who explicitly urged him to consider FARA and noted that registration on behalf of Iran likely would not be granted. Over the next decade, Afrasiabi repeatedly demonstrated an awareness of FARA in his private emails, discussing topics ranging from Saudi Arabia spending millions in U.S. lobbying to reports on foreign states secretly funding D.C. think tanks. And when sent a piece on a federal lawsuit accusing Chase Bank of acting as an unregistered agent for the former Shah of Iran, he replied “[t]hey waited a long time!”

Despite this documented awareness, Afrasiabi never registered as a foreign agent. He was arrested at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts on January 18, 2021, and subsequently indicted by an Eastern District of New York grand jury on two counts: conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal. However, before going to trial, Afrasiabi was pardoned in September 2023 as part of a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran.

Special thanks to Marion Carroll for her assistance on this Blog.

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