A U.S. district court judge has sentenced Abouzar Rahmati, 43, of Great Falls, Virginia, to one year in prison followed by three years of supervised release for spying on behalf of Iran, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Rahmati, a U.S. citizen who worked as a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration, pleaded guilty in April to providing Iranian government officials with at least 172 gigabytes of classified information related to U.S. solar energy in 2022. Prosecutors said Rahmati used his position to gain access to sensitive material that was then secretly transferred to Tehran. He had faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison under federal law.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Rahmati’s conduct represented a profound breach of trust. “By secretly doing the bidding of the Iranian government, Mr. Rahmati violated the trust placed in him as a U.S. citizen and as a federal contractor with access to sensitive information,” Pirro said. She added that preventing classified material from reaching hostile intelligence services is “one of our highest priorities.”

Court records show that Rahmati admitted to maintaining contact with Iranian officials and sending them files tied to solar energy research and infrastructure, a sector the U.S. government has identified as critical for both national security and energy independence. Investigators said the scale of the leak was significant, though they did not disclose details on whether Iran had put the information to use.

The case adds to a series of prosecutions in recent years involving U.S. citizens accused of providing assistance to the Iranian regime, which remains under heavy U.S. sanctions and is often accused by Washington of directing espionage and influence operations inside the United States.

Rahmati will begin serving his sentence immediately, after which he will remain under federal supervision for three years.

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