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TORONTO – An Iranian who invested more than $1-million inside a Toronto-based medical company and was set being its vice-president has been barred from Canada over his alleged links to Tehran’s nuclear program.
The Canada Border Services Agency refused to issue a work permit to Ramin Fallah, 49, labeling him a burglar threat because he had long worked at an Iranian import firm that was “of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) concern.”
According to some CBSA report marked “Secret,” between 1996 and 2013 Fallah was employed by Fanavari Azmayeshgahi, which “has been associated with procurement attached to the Iranian nuclear program.”
As a result, the CBSA denied his application for a three-year work permit. Fallah had sought the visa in Turkey so he could move to Toronto to serve as v . p . and chief operations officer of Canadian Plasma Resources.
The company made headlines this past year when it offered to pay blood donors, triggering a dispute with the Ontario government. In response, Canadian Plasma Resources halted intends to open 10 private plasma collection centres within the province.
But court papers show the organization has additionally run into trouble with Canadian immigration authorities over Fallah, who invested $1.3 million in the holding company and had been picked to consider a senior position at its parent, Exapharma Inc.
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The decision denying Fallah’s work permit was upheld by the Federal Court on Friday. The ruling was based partly on classified evidence about Fanavari Azmayeshgahi that the government convinced Justice Robert Barnes to not disclose for the reason doing this could harm national security.
While Iran has long denied it features a nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accused Tehran of “lying” about its intentions. A Canadian intelligence assessment says Iran reaches least choosing the capacity to produce nuclear missiles.
Iran’s nuclear program is being developed partly by importing dual-use technologies and materials and diverting them into nuclear production, a practice which has prompted international sanctions against a long list of Iranian firms.
Canadian Plasma Resources could not be reached for comment. A genuine estate listing indicates that its office on Spadina Ave. in Toronto is up for rent. The phone in the address listed in corporate records since it’s registered office was from service.
“We are shocked because there is no evidence to demonstrate that there’s a few national security here,” Fallah’s lawyer Cathryn Sawicki said Wednesday. She said if Fallah or Fanavari Azmayeshgahi were a threat they’d be listed under Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act regulations, but they are not.
Fanavari Azmayeshgahi continues to do business in the usa, Uk, Germany and elsewhere, she said. “It’s not clear what the actual issue or concern was. All we all know is that it revolved around nuclear proliferation, allegedly,” Sawicki said.
At the government Court, another lawyer representing Fallah had argued that Fanavari Azmayeshgahi was “a leading import company in the field of laboratory equipment” and was not on Canada’s listing of sanctioned Iranian companies.
“Mr. Ramin Fallah does not nor has he ever worked for an internationally sanctioned entity that deals with goods and products which are listed under SEMA (Special Economic Measures Act) regulations,” Immi Sikand wrote.
“His admittance to Canada would pose no security risk as he has no current or past knowledge of goods and/or items that could or could be exchanged with Iran to contribute to the proliferation risks presented by Iran’s weapons programs or nuclear programs.”
But the CBSA’s National Security Screening Division wrote in an 8-page Inadmissibility Assessment of Fallah that Fanavari Azmayeshgahi “has been identified in open sources by allied governments as being an entity of WMD concern.”
The United Kingdom considers it “an entity that poses ‘unacceptable risks of diversion to some WMD program of interest,'” while Japan also identified it as being “an entity of potential WMD concern,” the CBSA report said. For instance, Fanavari Azmayeshgahi imports x-ray machines, that are critical for WMD production, it said.
“When considering the above, there are reasonable grounds to think that the applicant, by virtue of his position as Managing Director of Fanavari Azmayeshgahi Company, by virtue of the company’s reported involvement within the procurement connected to the Iranian nuclear program, represents a danger to the security of Canada and it is allies,” CBSA wrote.
Justice Robert Barnes of the Federal Court agreed with the government, writing in his ruling that Fallah had failed to adequately explain Fanavari Azmayeshgahi’s import activities which “the decision to deny a visa to him was reasonable.”
Exapharma by Stewart Bell
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