Gholamreza Rafatnejad

Charges, as published

• Conspiracy to Commit Computer Hacking
• Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud
• Computer Fraud - Unauthorized Access for Private Financial Gain
• Wire Fraud
• Aggravated Identity Theft

Case details, as published by FBI

Gholamreza Rafatnejad is wanted for his alleged involvement in criminal activities, including obtaining unauthorized access to computer systems, stealing proprietary data from those systems, and selling that stolen data to Iranian customers such as Iranian universities and the Iranian government. Rafatnejad was a leader of the Mabna Institute, a private government contractor based in the Islamic Republic of Iran that performed this work for the Iranian government, at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Victims of the scheme included approximately 144 universities in the United States, 176 foreign universities in 21 countries, five federal and state government agencies in the United States, 36 private companies in the United States, 11 foreign private companies, and two international non-governmental organizations. On February 7, 2018, a grand jury sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York indicted Rafatnejad on computer intrusion, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges, and a federal arrest warrant has been issued for his arrest.