Allegedly stole confidential documents and technical data with aerospace applications from his U.S. employer and sent them to his brother Sina Hasanzadeh in Iran; arrested by U.S. authorities in November 2019, pursuant to a criminal complaint filed on October 31, 2019 alleging interstate transportation of stolen property and fraud for the misuse of visas, permits, and other documents.

In January 2015, began work as a senior hardware designer at a Michigan-based company that serves the automotive and aerospace industries, where he had access to sensitive information, including a supercomputer project with aerospace applications; beginning six days after his employment and continuing through June 2016, allegedly transferred confidential documents and data by email to brother Sina Hasanzadeh, who has worked for the Iranian companies Kavosh Samaneh Ayria, and Rayan Nik, and for Iranian companies of proliferation concern, including Basamad Azma Company (2009-2010), which supports Iran's cruise missile program, Moj Pardaz (2013-2018), and Bashir Industrial Complex (2013-2018), which is overseen by the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL); used an email account set up by Sina Hasanzadeh in November 2008 to transfer the confidential documents; the account was accessed by his brother from an Iranian IP address.

From 2011 to 2013, worked as a research faculty member at Florida State University's Center for Advanced Power Systems, where he held a security clearance; from 2013 to 2014, worked at the University of Maryland's Power Electronics, Energy Harvesting, and Renewable Energies Laboratory (PEHREL); while living in Iran, also worked for Basamad Azma; holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology and a Master of Science from K. N. Toosi University of Technology in Tehran.

Asserted on a 2010 visa application to enter the United States that he had served as a lieutenant in the Iranian Air Force from February 2002 to December 2003; allegedly lied about his military service on subsequent immigration forms and to an official from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

An Iranian national and a U.S. lawful permanent resident; born in July 1977 in Iran.