Canada continued awarding government contracts to companies controlled by an Edmonton businessman while immigration and intelligence officials were separately investigating allegations that he had worked on Iranian military technology and helped procure components unavailable to Iran because of sanctions.
Newly released records obtained by Global News identify the businessman as Mohammad Reza Ghafouri Fard, 45, who operates in Canada as Sal Ghafouri and is the son of former Iranian vice-president Hassan Ghafouri Fard.
His companies, Melanite Group and Radian Group, received more than $2 million in federal and provincial contracts, according to the outlet’s review of public and government records.
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The overlap is significant because Canadian immigration investigators had raised national-security concerns about Ghafouri by 2017, yet his companies subsequently secured contracts from agencies including the RCMP and Department of National Defence.
Global News reported that two military contracts alone were worth more than $1.5 million. Melanite later received a $15,000 federal technology grant in 2024 and another Canadian Armed Forces contract six months later, after CSIS had completed its security screening report in January 2023.
Public CanadaBuys records independently show Melanite receiving federal contracts, including a $103,478 National Defence contract awarded in 2020 and a series of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada awards and amendments. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal also recorded Melanite challenging its disqualification from a separate National Defence procurement in 2019.
The more serious allegations come from a recently declassified security-screening report cited by Global News. CSIS alleged that before returning to Canada as a permanent resident in 2013, Ghafouri worked for Iranian engineering company Rabi Kosar on military projects including the Shahin air-defence missile, an electronic-warfare system known as RAAD, and a direction-finding system called SINA.
The intelligence service further alleged that Ghafouri later participated in a procurement network that used a contact in Malaysia to obtain military components from third countries, including the US, because some materials were unavailable to Iran under sanctions. CSIS said the procurement activity benefited the Iranian military, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Ghafouri’s lawyer, Bjorna Shkurti, told Global News that her client strongly disputes them and noted that he has lived in Canada for more than a decade while undergoing multiple security screenings.
The records also indicate that Ghafouri returned to Iran in 2015 and met twice with members of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. CSIS alleged he discussed his Canadian employment and was advised how to respond if approached by Canadian or US intelligence services.
IRCC informed Ghafouri in May 2026 that it was beginning proceedings to deny him citizenship on the basis that he was considered a threat to Canadian security, according to the documents reported by Global News. The Canada Border Services Agency had separately pursued deportation proceedings over his employment history in Iran but withdrew that case in November because of what government records described as an inability to use the required evidence.
Ghafouri, meanwhile, is pursuing legal action over delays to his citizenship application and argues in court filings that his record of receiving government contracts undermines the claim that he poses a security threat.
