Iranian-American Pleads Guilty to Smuggling IRGC-Linked Individual and Receiving Child Rape Videos

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Sharon Gohari pleaded guilty May 12 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to one count of alien smuggling and one count of receiving child sexual abuse material.

Gohari, an Iranian national and naturalized U.S. citizen, solicited and received payments for years from Iranian nationals and others in exchange for arranging their unlawful entry into the United States. At least one individual he assisted had associations with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Federal investigators recovered multiple videos on Gohari’s phone showing the rape of children as well as hundreds of photos and videos of women he stalked and recorded without their knowledge throughout New York City.

The charges affect U.S. immigration enforcement and child-protection systems. Gohari’s smuggling operation targeted Iranian nationals seeking illegal entry; the precise number of individuals he moved remains unspecified in charging documents, yet the presence of an IRGC-linked person among them directly engages counterterrorism vetting protocols applied to every Iran-origin applicant.

The child sexual abuse material count stems from videos depicting rape of minors and a large volume of surreptitious recordings, triggering mandatory forfeiture of devices and potential restitution to identified victims under federal sentencing guidelines.

The plea changes Gohari’s legal status from defendant to convicted felon. Sentencing before Judge Ann M. Donnelly will occur on a date not yet set; until then he remains released under pretrial conditions. Conviction on both counts carries statutory maximums of 10 years for alien smuggling and 20 years for receipt of child sexual abuse material, to run consecutively or concurrently at the court’s discretion.

The guilty plea eliminates the need for trial and starts a presentence investigation that will calculate exact guidelines ranges based on number of smuggled individuals, number of CSAM images, and the IRGC nexus as an aggravating factor.

Downstream, the Department of Homeland Security and FBI must now review all prior entries facilitated by Gohari to determine whether additional IRGC-linked individuals entered the country. Immigration authorities will receive formal notice of the conviction, which automatically initiates removal proceedings against Gohari following any prison term.

The child sexual abuse material evidence must be catalogued and shared with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for victim identification, triggering separate civil suits or restitution claims once victims are located. Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York will use the case to update training materials on dual smuggling-CSAM investigations involving dual U.S.-Iran nationals.

This marks the latest federal prosecution linking Iranian smuggling networks to national-security concerns. The Justice Department has pursued similar cases against naturalized citizens who maintain ties to Iran, with the IRGC designation dating to 2019. The guilty plea was entered before Judge Ann M. Donnelly in Brooklyn federal court, per the Department of Justice release dated May 12, 2026.