US sanctions three Iranian spies over role in Levinson’s 2007 disappearance

The US has imposed sanctions on three senior Iranian intelligence officers for their supposed involvement in the disappearance of former FBI agent Robert Levinson in Iran in 2007.

On Wednesday, the State Department, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the FBI said that they were sanctioning three Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) officials for involvement in the “abduction, detention, and probable death of former FBI Special Agent Robert A. Levinson.”

The sanctioned officials are Taghi Daneshvar, Raza Amiri Moqadam, and Gholamhossein Mohammadani. 

The sanctions mean that all property and interests of the three that are in the US are now blocked and must be reported to OFAC. 

“Iran’s treatment of Mr. Levinson remains a blight on Iran’s already grim record of human rights abuse,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. 

“The Department of the Treasury will continue to work with US government partners to identify those responsible and shine a light on their abhorrent behavior.”

“Today’s action by our partners at the Department of the Treasury demonstrates that we continue to work together to identify additional Iranian officers involved in Bob’s abduction,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. 

“Our investigation continues—we will pursue all options to hold Iran accountable. The FBI will not waver in our commitment to provide answers to the Levinson family about what happened to Bob.”

Two other MOIS officers were formally sanctioned in December 2020 – Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai – for involvement in the same case.

The State Department stated, “The United States will continue to work to identify those involved in this case.”

Jewish-American Robert Levinson is an American private agent who formerly worked at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the FBI.

Since November 2019, the State Department has offered a reward of $20 million for anyone who can provide information about Levinson that could lead to his return or recovery.

The new sanctions are in line with Executive Order (E.O.) 14078, which implements the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. 

The act holds terrorist organizations, criminal groups, and other malicious actors accountable who take hostages for financial, political, or other gain—as well as foreign states that engage in the practice of wrongful detention, including for political leverage or to seek concessions from the US. 

Who are the three sanctioned officers?

Gholamhossein Mohammadnia (Mohammadnia), a senior MOIS deputy, was formally the Iranian ambassador to Albania before being expelled for “damaging its national security.”  

Mohammadnia blamed Levinson’s detention on a terrorist group in Pakistan’s Baluchistan region.

Reza Amiri Moghadam (Moghadam) has been the head of MOIS’s operations unit, with MOIS agents in Europe reporting to him in Tehran at one point, according to the Treasury Department.  

He is the current Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan.  

Taqi Daneshvar (Daneshvar) has been an Iranian MOIS officer who oversaw the work of Sanai, AKA Mohammad Baseri (Baseri), during the timeframe that Levinson disappeared from Kish Island, Iran.  

What happened to Levinson?

Levinson was 58 at the time of his disappearance on Kish Island in southern Iran in 2007. 

A photo of him, bearded and held in Iran, was provided in a handout in 2011.

According to Radio Farda and an Associated Press investigation, Levinson had been “sent on a mission by CIA analysts who had no authority to run such an operation.”

Iran was mandated in 2015 to cooperate in Levinson’s return, however it did not.

In 2020, his family released a statement saying they believed him to be dead.

“We received information from US officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody.”