U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to withdraw a criminal case against Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, an Iranian banker convicted of moving $115 million from Venezuela to Iranian entities via the U.S. financial system, in violation of U.S. sanctions. Sadr was found guilty of setting up a network of front companies and bank accounts in order to move funds from a construction project in Venezuela to Iran and mask the involvement of his father, the head of an Iranian industrial conglomerate called Stratus Group. Prosecutors cited the likelihood of continued litigation over evidence suppression as the reason for their request to withdraw the case. A lawyer for Sadr had requested that the case be dismissed because prosecutors failed to share exculpatory evidence before the verdict.