14 DAY TRIAL // The Federal Bureau of Investigations is currently alleging that University of Florida (UF) professor Samim Anghaie, along with other family members, have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from governmental funds, which were awarded to a company the family ran, but which was illegal. Since 1999, NASA, the US Air Force (USAF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have paid more than $3.4 million to the NETECH company, whose president is Anghaie's wife, Sousan. Authorities are currently investigating bank records and business documents, in an attempt to clear the situation.
At this point, the professor makes about $111,000 each year, and occupies the position of the university's Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute director. He is also the director of the College of Engineering Academic Personnel Board, the chairman of the faculty council, and a faculty member at Oregon State University. On Wednesday, he was placed on administrative leave with pay by the University, because the FBI had just raided his office in search for evidence connecting NETECH to Anghaie.
The company, also known as New Era Technology, was used as a front to submit various illicit proposals to NASA, on projects the agency was interested in acquiring private contracts for. Once the firm was awarded the contracts, it would send in false invoices, detailing the working hours of inexistent workers. Over the past ten years, the company has received some 13 government-backed contracts altogether.
FBI court transcripts and bank data show that the couple used the company as a means of funneling large sums of money to their private accounts. They withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, and most of the money went on buying cars and real estates, according to the investigators. The Bureau is now seeking to seize six vehicles and six pieces of real property, which belong to the family, pending the end of the investigation. Apparently, Samim and Sousan Anghaie also transfered large sums of money to the personal accounts of their two sons, Ali and Hamid.
In keeping with UF documents, Anghaie never caused problems in the past, and no administrative actions have been taken against him until now. Formerly, he even worked with NASA legitimately, as he was a part of a $10-million grant at the Kennedy Space Center. The group was studying the properties of hydrogen and how it could be used as fuel. At this point, the four have not yet been arrested, and the FBI, NASA and the family refuse to make any comments on the issue.