US sanctions six Iranian individuals and one company for allegedly interfering in the country's 2020 elections
On Thursday, November 17, the US Treasury Department sanctioned six individuals and a company owned by Iranian-Americans on charges of disrupting the last presidential election and attempting to undermine voters' trust in the US electoral system.
In addition, an indictment was filed in New York court against two of these individuals, who are young men in their 20s.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the US Treasury Department announced that the sanctioned individuals are those who have been "pawns" of the Islamic Republic of Iran to influence and subvert the US elections.
According to the report, the United States has identified cyber intrusions by state-sponsored actors, including Iranian actors.
OFAC said that the company and the six sanctioned individuals advanced their goals online during the four-month period between August 2020 and November 2020, which coincided with the height of the US presidential election campaign.
According to the report, the individuals in question had gained or were attempting to gain access to the accounts of some US media outlets and 11 government websites, but were able to edit the content of these accounts in at least one state. That account contained information on 100,000 voters. The FBI, the US Homeland Security Police, later denied the cyberattackers this access.
According to the OFAC statement, these individuals and the sanctioned company, among other things, published false information or sent a video with fake content and threatening emails to voters.
The video, with its fake content, claimed that the US election system was rigged to not detect fraudulent votes. The threatening email was sent to the American far-right group "Proud Sons", which is a supporter of Donald Trump.
The company sanctioned by the US Treasury Department is called "Safenet Passardgad" because, according to OFAC, it was responsible for "leading" intrusive and destructive online activities.
OFAC emphasized that the agents of the "Imannet Pasargad" company previously had another company called "Netpaygard Samavat", which was previously sanctioned by the United States due to its connection to the cyber unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, but they changed the name of the company.
The six sanctioned individuals are: Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Musa Kazemi, Sajjad Kashian, Mostafa Sarmadi, Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi Toghraljordi, Hossein Akbari Nodeh, and Mohammad Baqer Shirinkar.
The actions of two of the six Iranian-Americans sanctioned by the Treasury Department were deemed more serious and were therefore indicted. They are Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27.
The two individuals could face 15 to 20 years in prison. It is not known whether the two defendants are currently in US custody or where they are located, but it has been emphasized that they reside in Iran and that their actions were directed from Iran.
With OFAC sanctions, any assets and bank accounts of sanctioned individuals and companies are frozen, and American and even international citizens or companies are prohibited from having business and financial relations with the targeted individuals and companies.
The US Treasury Department report suggests that the indictment against the two defendants may become even more serious because the department has asked anyone with knowledge of the activities of the two to provide credible and significant information and receive a reward of $10 million.
The US State Department has approved a long-standing program called "Rewards for Justice" that offers large sums of money for information on dangerous criminals.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday in this regard, "The sanctions on Iranian cyber actors demonstrate that the Treasury Department, the State Department, and the FBI, in a collective effort, have taken decisive action against those who seek to interfere with the integrity of American elections."
US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wali Adimo also said that the department will continue to counter efforts aimed at disrupting the integrity of US elections.
In its second month in office, the Joe Biden administration wrote in a report that Iran and Russia interfered in the US election process last November.
At that time, Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, claimed on his Twitter page that "unlike the United States, Iran does not interfere in the elections of other countries."
Source: Radio Farda
