Two Texas residents have pleaded guilty for their roles in an illicit scheme to transfer tens of thousands of dollars from the US to Iran, including for the benefit of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that between December 2018 and December 2019, Muzzamil Zaidi, 40, and Asim Mujtaba Naqvi, 40, collected payments of khums—a religious tax on wealth—and donations purportedly from individuals in the US to help victims of the ongoing civil war in Yemen.
In 2018, Zaidi was granted permission to collect this tax on behalf of several Imams, according to court documents from the Justice Department.
To avoid law enforcement scrutiny, the pair enlisted friends, family, and other associates to transport cash out of the US in amounts less than $10,000.
One dollar transfer to Iran involved a group of 25 travelers going on a religious pilgrimage in Iraq and the subsequent transport of US dollars hand-carried by those travelers to Iran. They were arrested in Houston on Aug. 18, 2020. Zaidi’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 13, and Naqvi’s for Oct. 1.
Due to US economic sanctions imposed on Iran since 1995, money transfers are illegal. The State Department has designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism every year since 1984. Additionally, on June 24, 2019, former US President Donald Trump imposed additional sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran, prohibiting the provision of funds to or for his benefit.
