Muzzamil Zaidi, Scheme to Transfer Money to Iran, Texas 2020

Two Houston residents have been found guilty of orchestrating a scheme to collect tens of thousands of dollars from the United States to Iran, violating strict economic sanctions.

Muzzamil Zaidi, 40, and Asim Mujtaba Naqvi, 40, both of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan.

The illicit scheme, which spanned from December 2018 to December 2019, involved collecting khums – a religious tax on wealth – on behalf of several Imams, as well as donations purportedly to help victims of the ongoing civil war in Yemen, from individuals in the United States.

Zaidi and Naqvi arranged for the funds to be exported from the United States to Iran, with some transfers involving groups of travelers carrying cash hand-carried by those travelers to Iran. The duo enlisted friends, family members, and other associates to carry the cash out of the United States, in amounts less than $10,000 in order to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.

The transfer of money was illegal because the United States has imposed economic sanctions on Iran since 1995. Every year since 1984, the U.S. State Department has named Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. And on June 24, 2019, the President imposed additional sanctions on the Supreme Leader of Iran that prohibit the provision of funds to, or for the benefit of, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Both Zaidi and Naqvi were arrested in Houston on August 18, 2020, as a result of this scheme. They are scheduled to be sentenced, with Zaidi’s sentencing set for August 13 and Naqvi’s sentencing set for October 1.

The FBI Washington Field Office and the FBI Houston Counterterrorism team are investigating the case, with valuable assistance provided by FBI Field Offices in Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit.

The prosecution is being led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jolie Zimmerman, Erik Kenerson, and Maeghan Mikorski for the District of Columbia, and Trial Attorneys Adam Small and Derek Shugert of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Jennifer Levy of the Counterterrorism Section.

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