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Copyright © 1994-99, by the Middle East Data Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Police in Los Angeles and Nevada arrested 15 persons on March 16 for their involvement in a scheme to smuggle members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq illegally into the United States by acquiring U.S. visas for them, according to court documents obtained by The Iran Brief.
A June 1998 grand jury indictment, unsealed on March 16, alleged that the group operated a series of visa service companies in Encino, California, and had helped up to 300 Iranians illegally enter the United States over the past three years, and as many as 22,000 since 1983. Many of those helped were known to U.S. law enforcement officials as Mujahedin operatives, a group which is on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations.
The indictment alleges that 43-year old Bahram Tabatabai, of Sherman Oaks, California was the ring-leader, and ran the operation out of a series of businesses known variously as California Management Network, IMN, International Management Network, and Iranian Aid Services Network. He used the aliases Ben, Ali, and Reza Tabatabai, depending on the situation.
Tabatabai had two main partners: Mohsen Arefe, who produced false documents; and Rafi Tamtami, who was in charge of helping Mujahedin operatives and others to fraudulently obtain visas at the U.S. embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus.
FBI sources say the Bureau has run several cases against the Mujahedin in the Washington, DC area, including cases where Mujahedin operatives attempted to enter the country using false visas, false passports, or fake political asylum travel documents. The Bureau has long suspected that the Mujahedin operated a "document shop," but this is the first time U.S. law enforcement officials have actually discovered one in operation.
Mohsen Arefe and his wife churned out thousands of forged bank records, marriage certificates, business and property records, employment records, military records, identification documents, and school records in support of the visa applications, the indictment alleges. On average, they charged around $500 per client for a complete set of counterfeit documents.
The insider: The case began in October 1996 when one of Tabatabai's employees Tabatabai voluntarily came to the FBI offering information on individuals who had fraudulently obtained U.S. entry visas. The FBI subsequently put the informant in touch with the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DSS), which is in charge of investigating passport violations and became the lead agency on the case. The FBI paid the informant close to $40,000 between February 1998 and March 1998 when the indictment was unsealed.
The informant had an insider's view of Tabatabai's operation, since he was responsible for sending forged visa application documents to Tamtami in Cyprus. "Tamtami would review these documents for completeness, would meet with the applicant, and would coach the applicant in preparation for the visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus," according to a sworn affidavit prepared by Kevin Huska, a DSS Special Agent.
Tabatabai offered a full range of services, depending on how dirty was the client's real past.
"Tabatabai offers two types of services for political asylum," Huska wrote. "The first service involves assisting the client in the completion of the INS forms... Tabatabai charges the client at least $2,000 for his services, and the client would apply to the INS without Tabatabai's assistance. The second type of service provided by Tabatabai guarantees that the client will be granted political asylum. Tabatabai would develop a new identity for the client, and would give the client supporting documents including birth certificates, employment records, diplomas from secondary schools to post graduate institutions, official Government of Iran records/correspondence describing death or prison sentence decrees, etc."
It was necessary to go through these complicated procedures, the court papers allege, because many of the applicants were Mujahedin members or had arrest records in the United States. Because the Mujahedin is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, its members are barred from applying for political asylum in the United States. Convicted felons are barred from entry into the United States.
"In addition to the false documents and assumed identities, Tabatabai further fabricates a "story" for the potential political asylum client and then coaches them for the political asylum interview," Huska testified. "Once Tabatabai has obtained the fraudulent documents and is comfortable that the client knows his new identity and "story" for the political asylum request, Tabatabai accompanies the client to the INS political asylum hearing and represents himself as a translator. If Tabatabai does not like an answer given by the client (in Farsi) in response to a question by the INS hearing officer during the interview, Tabatabai would change the client's response during the translation."
INS records showed that Tabatabai had thus represented "over 300 individuals in their political asylum interviews" at the INS office in Anaheim, California.
"This investigation has also revealed that Tabatabai and others have assisted members of the Iranian Mujahedin-e Khalq with their asylum applications [by providing] new identities; fraudulent documents in support of these new identities; and fabricated "cover" stories in support of the applicants' asylum claims. These "cover" stories typically entail involvement with anti-government of Iran activities, incarceration, beatings, etc.," according to the Huska affidavit.
The document shop: Mohsen Arefe and his wife ran a veritable document shop out of a small office known as Vijeh Company in Beverly Hills. Since October 1997, they have operated out of their home in Henderson, Nevada. The confidential informant, sent to pick up documents from them, found via embossing stamps, letterhead purporting to be from various Iranian government ministries, and forms from private companies in Iran. They used these to create false life histories - or "legends" - for their clients.
In one case, Tabatabai paid the Arefe $700 to obtain an entire document suite for a client named Safoura Pashaei Marandi. The documents included employment verification for Marandi from the Sheepra Shoes Manufacturing Company; a computer course certificate for Marandi from the Computech Center; a factory ownership certification in the name of Reza Pashaei Marandi; bank account balance in Marandi's name from the Etebarat Bank of Iran; an ownership deed in the name of Reza Pashaei Marandi; transcripts in Marinade's name from the University of Tehran; and a promissory guarantee from the City of Tehran in Marandi's name. The documents were shipped by Federal Express to Marandi in France.
For someone leaving Iran out of fear of persecution, it was an impressive amount of documentation. The only problem was, all the documents were fakes.
Ms. Marandi was clever, and applied for her visa at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, not in France. But the Bureau of Diplomatic Security was clever, also. They sent out a watch list of Tabatabai's known customers to U.S. embassies in Europe, and soon had in hand copies of Ms. Marandi's entire student visa application file, which matched exactly with the photocopies made by the confidential informant before he had sent the documents to Marandi in France.
In similar cases, the DSS found that Tabatabai's clients had applied for U.S. visas in Turkey and Cyprus.
In a conversation between the confidential informant and Arefe at Arefe's home outside of Las Vegas that was taped clandestinely, Arefe said he had forged documents for more than 22,000 customers since 1983, and that he maintained a client data base on his computer with "everybody's name, phone and address."
If the FBI gains access to the Arefe data base, they may discover the secrets of Mujahedin operatives who have been working undercover in the United States for years without notice.