[DDC] Former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor Abouzar Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Great Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the United States without prior notification to the Attorney General. According to court documents, from at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian government officials and intelligence operatives to act on their behalf in the United States, including by meeting with Iranian intelligence officers in Iran, communicating with Iranian intelligence officers and government officials using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtaining employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtaining open-source and non-public materials about the U.S. solar energy industry and providing it to Iranian intelligence officers.