Orange County Waiter Accused by FBI of Being Government Spy For Iran | Eater LA

"I read in the LA Times that the upscale restaurant Darya at South Coast Village Plaza had employed Majid Ghorbani, a 59-year-old server, for the restaurant’s entire 20-year history and that he was arrested in August while working a shift in Santa Ana after the FBI accused him of acting as a covert operative for the government of Iran. According to the report, Ghorbani and an associate conducted more than a year of surveillance targeting Israeli and Jewish facilities and the Iranian exile group Mujahedin Khalq, with agents recording meetings and finding target lists and dossiers in their luggage on a return trip from Iran; restaurant ownership said they had no prior knowledge of those activities even though some meetings took place at the restaurant. I gathered that Ghorbani was a beloved server for the large Persian community, and the accusations have heightened tensions within the Iranian expat community, already on edge under the current Trump administration." - Farley Elliott