In the predawn hours of Jan. 28, 2024, a drone attacked a US military base in the Jordan desert near the Syrian border. Three American service members were killed and more than 40 others were wounded.As the FBI analyzed the wreckage, the investigation led agents here to Natick — specifically, a local engineer who allegedly plotted to send highly sophisticated and sensitive US technology to an Iranian company that manufactured the drone’s navigation system.On Tuesday, Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 42, of Natick, who has dual citizenship in the United States and Iran, is scheduled to appear in US District Court in Boston for a hearing on the prosecution’s request to keep him jailed without bail until trial. The government is also seeking the extradition of his codefendant, Mohammad Abedininajafabadi, also known as Mohammad Abedini, 38, of Tehran, who was arrested in Italy. He is charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death, as well as export violations.The case, according to national security experts, reflects a growing effort by the government to use the American justice system to fend off escalating attacks from nation-state adversaries such as Iran, China, and Russia that have been involved in the theft of sensitive US technology and trade secrets, as well as widespread cyberattacks and cyber intrusions intended to steal data from public and private entities.“This [case] really puts front and center the importance of this type of enforcement,” said David Aaron, a former federal prosecutor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division.The case alleges a direct link between illegal exports and the death of US servicemen, and “really drives home to the business sector not only the need for compliance … but lets them know this is a priority of the US government,” said Aaron, who is senior counsel at the global law firm Perkins Coie and represents clients in matters involving cybersecurity, data protection, and national security.B. Stephanie Siegmann, a partner at Hinckley Allen and former federal prosecutor, said the government’s focus on illegal exports and cybersecurity shows, “we have entered a new era, a data war with our adversaries.”“Now, because of AI tools, you can actually weaponize that data far quicker than previously,” said Siegmann, who served as chief of the national security unit in the Massachusetts US attorney’s office until 2022. She was speaking generally about the increased focus on sensitive US technology and not the Sadeghi case.The indictment brought against Sadeghi and Abedini alleges the pair conspired to illegally export sensitive technology from Sadeghi’s employer, a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Massachusetts, to Iran using a front company in Switzerland owned by Abedini.Sadeghi allegedly sent electronic components and “data sheets” that were not yet publicly available to Abedini’s Swiss company, Illumove. The goods and technology were then allegedly transferred to Abeidin’s Iran-based company, San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co., or SDRA, which manufactures navigation systems for drones used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the indictment.Sadeghi pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.Federal authorities didn’t name the Massachusetts company, but a spokesperson for Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) confirmed that Sadeghi worked there for the past four years and was fired following his recent arrest.The company is cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities and “is committed to preventing unauthorized access to and misuse of our products and technology,” the spokesperson said.Because of the American government’s new crackdown on illegal exportation, Siegmann said a lot of companies are now thinking: “Is it worth the risk of doing sales to certain overseas countries?”As part of the focus on trade secrets, the Justice Department and the US Department of Commerce in February 2023 launched the Disruptive Technology Strike Force, in an effort to “target illicit actors, strengthen supply chains and protect critical technological assets from being acquired or used by nation-state adversaries.”The effort has also led to a number of high-profile cases nationwide in recent years involving the theft of trade secrets and the illegal exportation of sensitive US technology to restricted or prohibited countries.In October, a top executive at a China-based hedge fund was indicted in federal court in Boston on charges that he stole trade secrets from his former Boston-based employer, Arrowstreet Capital. Xia Zhang, 33, is charged with illegally making copies of his former employer’s code, projects, and research in 2021 to aid an investment firm he founded in China. He has not appeared in court to face the charges.In September, a Russian national living in North Attleborough and a man living in Moscow were charged in federal court in Boston with conspiracy to violate export laws for allegedly smuggling laser welding machines to Russia for use in the country’s nuclear weapons program.In California, a former Google software engineer was charged with stealing proprietary information about the company’s advanced AI technologies while planning to set up his own company in China.And in 2023, the US Department of Commerce announced that Seagate Technology Holdings PLC agreed to pay a $300 million penalty to settle claims that it shipped over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to China’s Huawei in violation of export control laws.Both Siegmann and Aaron said the incoming Trump administration will likely continue to pursue cases involving export control violations and the theft of intellectual property.“A lot of the economy is based on the free flow of goods and information, so you want enforcement to be properly calibrated to enforce national security but not unnecessarily interfere with commerce,” Aaron said.“It’s easy to say we don’t want our secrets stolen by spies; we don’t want our buildings bombed,” Aaron said. “It’s a little more nuanced when we get into the area of how much do we want our business practices to have to change to prevent a national security threat from maturing.”Shelley Murphy can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @shelleymurph.
