A Mossad Spy in Iran: From Banking and Telecoms to Missile Sabotage

Shahed Alavi writes at Iran International, the major website of Iranians in exile, of how a single Mossad agent penetrated Iran’s banking and telecom companies, and was able to sabotage its nuclear program. Kia was the pseudonym of a Mossad agent in Iran, a graduate of Tehran’s Imam Sadegh University, who managed to infiltrate both the banking and telecom systems through becoming a close associate of Mehdi Naderi Jahromi, founder of Tehran Internet and the payment app 780. Kia then went on to infiltrate the military, and to sabotage both its missile and nuclear programs. At one point, Kia learned from Mossad that his contact Naderi was asking questions about him, and that he should drop all contact with Naderi. Kia did as he was told. Instead, he turned his attention from the telecom and banking sectors, and infiltrated the Iranian weapons program. Under the alias that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps provided him, “Mahmoud Ghaem-Maghami,” he was trusted enough to become the CEO of the new company that had been set up to facilitate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s investment of millions in Tajikistan for the installation of 5,000 GSM wireless fixed-line telephones in rural and remote parts of the country. In return, Tajikistan would grant a private Iranian company a 25-year concession to operate Post Bank Tajikistan, with initial capital of $5 million.

This extraordinary story can be found here: “A Mossad spy in Iran: From banking and telecoms infiltration to nuclear sabotage and the Malard missile center blast,” by Shahed Alavi, Iran International, n.d.:

An Iran International investigation reveals how a Mossad agent gained access to sensitive Iranian banking and telecommunications systems through a business network with connections reaching deep into the state.

His access extended from banking channels used to evade sanctions to telecommunications infrastructure serving military sites and, according to his account, ultimately helped Israeli intelligence penetrate Iran’s missile and nuclear programs.

At the center of the story is Mehdi Naderi Jahromi, founder of Tehran Internet and the payment app 780. His businesses began with telephone-card distribution in the late 1990s before expanding into telecommunications, electronic payments and banking services. Corporate and banking records reviewed for this investigation document parts of that expansion.

The Mossad agent, identified in this report as Kia, is a graduate of Tehran’s Imam Sadegh University who began working with Naderi in 2008. Kia says he used his position inside Naderi’s business network to gain access to Iranian banking and telecommunications systems.

His account forms a substantial part of this investigation. It has been examined alongside contracts, bank correspondence, corporate and judicial records, an interview with a telecommunications expert and open-source material.

On August 16, 2026, a notice registering changes to Tehran Internet was published naming Naderi as chairman of the company, which remains active in payment services and digital businesses.

Naderi, now 51, comes from a family with ties to Islamist circles before the 1979 revolution. His father was among those who occupied the Imperial Iranian Embassy in Vienna on February 12, 1979….

Kia eventually had to be extracted, as the Iranians were becoming suspicious, but what a list of incredible achievements, to have been able to infiltrate so many critical areas — the banking sector, the telecommunications industry, and the weapons program, which included blowing up Iran’s top missile expert and 27 of his colleagues, as well as much of the Malard missile center.

This report that appeared at Iran International must make for nightmares in Tehran. Kia may have left, but how many other Mossad agents remain in Iran, and have been quietly infiltrating every critical component of Iran’s economy and its weapons program?