New York-Based Iranian National Pleads Guilty to Alien Smuggling and Receiving Child Sexual Abuse Material

Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, Iranian national Sharon Gohari pleaded guilty to unlawfully smuggling aliens into the United States and intentionally receiving child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

For years, Gohari, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and resided alternately in Iran and Nassau County, New York, solicited and received payments from Iranian nationals and others seeking to enter the United States unlawfully in exchange for arranging and facilitating their entry. At least one individual whom Gohari aided had associations with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been designated by the United States Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). During the investigation into Gohari's illegal activities, law enforcement discovered that Gohari received and stored multiple videos on his phone depicting the rape of children, as well as hundreds of photos and videos reflecting the stalking and surreptitious recording of women throughout New York City. Today's proceeding was held before United States District Judge Ann M. Donnelly.

"As this case illustrates, we cannot protect our national security without a secure border," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. "Gohari made a business of smuggling aliens into the United States, at least one of whom had ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization. I applaud the investigators and prosecutors who made possible today's plea, taking this defendant off our streets."

"The defendant exploited and endangered vulnerable individuals for profit, over and over again," said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. "In doing so, he also put our national security at risk and circumvented the vital procedures that are in place to vet those entering our country. Our Office will continue to aggressively pursue transnational criminal schemes operating here in the United States, especially when they involve terrorist groups like the IRGC that seek to do us harm. And we will always prosecute the sexual exploitation of children to the fullest extent of the law."

"The defendant admits to helping people illegally enter the United States -- including someone associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - which endangers our country's national security," said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. "It is essential to protect our borders, and the FBI works closely with our interagency partners to prevent anyone from being smuggled in, especially those connected to our adversaries. This individual will now face justice not just for that crime but also for sexually exploiting children, the most vulnerable members of our society."

"Sharon Gohari threatened our national security by selling illegal entry into the United States - including a client with ties to a designated terrorist organization. With our federal and local law enforcement partners, the FBI is committed to holding accountable criminals seeking to exploit our country's border and our citizens," said Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. of the FBI New York Field Office.

"Anyone who seeks to profit through the abuse and exploitation of other people - especially children - will be held fully accountable," said NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch. "Today's guilty plea is the result of the NYPD's unwavering commitment to bring human traffickers to justice. I commend and thank our NYPD investigators, as well as our partners at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, for their dedicated work in this case."

Gohari is a naturalized United States citizen from Iran who resided in Roslyn, New York, and traveled frequently to Iran. From at least December 2020 up to his arrest in May 2025, Gohari solicited and received payments from Iranian nationals and others seeking to enter the United States unlawfully in exchange for arranging and facilitating their entry, primarily through Mexico. Among other things, Gohari helped these individuals obtain travel visas at the Mexican embassy in Iran and helped arrange their travel to and through Mexico and into the United States in large groups. Some passed through Central and South American countries with Gohari's assistance. Gohari worked with a network of associates in Iran and elsewhere and charged thousands of dollars per client for these services.

At least one Iranian national Gohari aided had ties to the IRGC. Specifically, in early 2021, Gohari facilitated the travel of an individual from Iran to Turkey, from Turkey to Mexico, and from Mexico into the United States, where the individual was detained by border patrol officers. The individual ultimately confessed to law enforcement that he had previously carried out tasks in Iran and Malaysia for the IRGC.

During the investigation into Gohari's alien smuggling activities, federal agents discovered that Gohari received and stored CSAM on his phone, including multiple videos depicting the rape of children apparently as young as five years old. In chat communications following his receipt of the videos, Gohari stated his intention to seek out sexual partners in a high school. Agents also found on Gohari's devices hundreds of photos and videos of what appeared to be women in various public places throughout New York City, including on trains and at cafes, who did not seem to be aware that they were being photographed or recorded. Some of the photos and videos appeared to be taken at close range, including several photos that were angled in an apparent attempt to see under the women's skirts or other garments. Other photos and videos depicted the same women in multiple locations, indicating that the women had been followed. Gohari sent some of these photos and videos to an Iranian-based account from which he received CSAM, among other Iranian-based accounts.

For the child sex abuse material charge, Gohari faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and up to 20 years in prison, and a mandatory minimum of three years in prison for alien smuggling and up to 10 years in prison.

Mr. Nocella praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI's New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the New York City Police Department, and over 50 other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, for their crucial assistance.

Mr. Nocella also thanked the Homeland Security Task Force, a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.

The government's case is being handled by the Office's National Security and Cybercrime Section. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew D. Reich is in charge of the prosecution with assistance from Trial Attorney Kevin Nunnally of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section and Paralegal Specialist Wayne Colon.