CEO and director of DamavandTec, a front company for the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), which according to the U.S. Department of State is the direct successor to Iran's pre-2004 nuclear weapon program; has attempted to procure items applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices from foreign suppliers on behalf of the SPND.

Reportedly organized and led a delegation that traveled to Russia in August 2024 to "discuss and agree on technical and production aspects of electronic device development" and general scientific cooperation; the delegation reportedly visited Tekhnoekspert, a Russian company co-located with the state-controlled Polyus Research Institute and owned by Russian vacuum technology expert Oleg Maslennikov, and Toriy, a research facility located near the Polyus Research Institute campus; the delegation reportedly sought to learn about or acquire multi-beam klystrons (specialized vacuum tubes) for flash x-ray systems.

Members of the delegation, who posed as DamavandTec employees, reportedly included:

• Javad Ghasemi, the CEO of Iranian company Imen Gostar Raman Kish and former CEO of Paradise Medical Pioneers
• Rouhollah Azimirad, a senior SPND scientist and Malek Ashtar University professor with expertise in radiation testing
• Soroush Mohtashami, an expert on neutron generators affiliated with Amirkabir University of Technology

Reportedly sought the radioactive isotopes tritium, Strontium-90, and Nickel-63 from Russia-based company Ritverc in May 2024 on behalf of DamavandTec.

With Ali Bakouei, visited the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia in 2016; during the visit, toured the institute's Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and Laboratory of High-Energy Physics and discussed potential cooperation in the construction of charged particle accelerators, particularly electron accelerators; reportedly attended a conference on particle accelerators in Novosibirsk, Russia, in 2023.

Reportedly married to Laleh Heshmati, who has served as a company official at DamavandTec and is the chairwoman of MKS International Co. Ltd.; worked as an assistant to Ali Bakouei at Tarbiat Modares University circa 2016.

Reportedly holds a degree in nuclear physics from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.

Passport number (Iran) is G10535869 (expires July 14, 2029); alternate passport number (Iran) is N57400649 (expires July 2, 2027).

Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1981.

Sanctions

Designated by the U.S. Department of State on October 1, 2025, pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their delivery systems; added on October 1, 2025, to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freezing the person's assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting transactions with U.S. parties, pursuant to Executive Order 13382; also subject to the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations, which restricts the use of the U.S. financial system for transactions involving Iranian entities.

Foreign parties facilitating transactions for the person or otherwise assisting the person may be subject to U.S. sanctions; foreign financial institutions facilitating transactions for the person may be prohibited from opening or maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts in the United States; subject to heightened U.S. export license requirements (with a presumption of denial) due to involvement in activities related to WMD proliferation.