Who Is Shamim Mafi? Iranian-American Whose Seized Family Inheritance Prosecutors Say Led Her into an Illegal Arms Network

Shamim Mafi, a 44-year-old Iranian-born businesswoman living in Woodland Hills, California, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday night on suspicion of trafficking weapons on behalf of the Iranian government. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli announced on Sunday that she is charged with a violation of 50 U.S.C. § 1705 for brokering 'the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition manufactured by Iran and sold to Sudan.'

Mafi, who was born in Iran, entered the US and became a lawful permanent resident in 2016. She resided in Woodland Hills, where she had built a prominent public profile, posting pictures of international travel and luxury vehicles. On social media, she presented the image of a successful international entrepreneur, far removed from the arms networks prosecutors now allege she was operating.

A Business Built on Coercion

According to court records cited in the original complaint, the story of how Mafi allegedly became entangled with Iran's intelligence apparatus begins not with ideology, but with property. After leaving Iran in 2013, Tehran seized properties she had inherited from her father in 2020. Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, known as MOIS, then allegedly directed her to open a business in the United States, with the promise of buying back those seized assets as leverage.

The complaint accuses Mafi of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and says she allegedly coordinated with figures tied to Iran's government, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while maintaining contact with an officer from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Federal agents said Mafi never obtained the required US licences to broker such transactions involving Iranian goods or defence articles.

Mafi herself told investigators she had never been tasked by MOIS to conduct activities for Tehran on US soil. However, phone records reviewed by prosecutors indicate she had direct contact with MOIS between December 2022 and June 2025.

The $70 Million Drone Deal

The FBI's Iran Counterintelligence Squad, assigned to the Los Angeles Field Office, wrote in an affidavit that Mafi 'conspired with others to perpetrate an unlawful scheme to broker the sale of weapons, weapons components, and ammunition on behalf of the Government of Iran.' Last year, the FBI says the company brokered a $70 million (£52.1 million) deal for the government of Sudan to buy Iranian drones. Mafi was paid nearly $7 million (£5.2 million) in fees after she 'coordinated the Sudanese delegation's travel to Iran.'

Among the weapons involved was a contract for Iranian-made Mohajer-6 armed drones from Iran's Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, transferred to Sudan's Ministry of Defence. To avoid detection, prosecutors say Mafi and her Oman-registered company, Atlas International Business, deliberately routed deals through Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran's Weapons and Sudan's Bloodshed

The alleged arms transfers carry significant consequences beyond the courtroom. The influx of drones from abroad violates a United Nations arms embargo on Sudan. Since Iranian cargo aircraft began arriving regularly at Port Sudan's airport, the Sudanese Armed Forces launched attacks against rival forces using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 unmanned aerial vehicles.

As Sudan's civil war enters its fourth year, the country's embattled western regions, including Darfur, where a UN fact-finding mission identified the 'hallmarks of genocide', remain engulfed in conflict. The war has displaced nearly nine million people, making it one of the worst displacement crises on the planet, according to the original complaint.

Caught at the Gate

Mafi told the FBI she could provide 'extensive information about the Iranian financial system and money laundering channels used by the Government of Iran.' She was scheduled to board a flight to Istanbul when she was apprehended by law enforcement at LAX on Saturday night.

Mafi is expected to make her initial court appearance on Monday afternoon in US District Court in downtown Los Angeles. If convicted, she faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. A representative for Mafi could not be immediately reached for comment.

The arrest of Shamim Mafi underscores the increasingly complex methods foreign intelligence services allegedly use to recruit operatives within Western borders — not through traditional espionage channels, but through financial pressure and personal vulnerability. It also adds to a growing body of evidence pointing to Iran's role in prolonging one of the world's deadliest ongoing conflicts, with real-world consequences for millions of civilians caught in Sudan's civil war.