Politics | 02/26/2009 8:50 am

University of Florida Prof. Samim Anghaie, Wife, Accused of Swindling NASA Cash

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

A University of Florida professor and his wife are in hot water for allegedly scamming money from NASA to buy cars and homes.

Federal authorities say Iranian-born nuclear engineer, Professor Samim Anghaie, 59, and his wife, Sousan, used money from NASA contracts to buy six cars, stocks and houses in three Florida towns, as well as Connecticut. Samim founded and runs UF’s Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute, which is funded through private and government grants and contracts to study the application of nuclear power in space. He’s also a major player in efforts to safeguard the state’s nuclear power plants, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Mr. Anghaie and his wife, Sousan, 54, run New Era Technology, a company that conducts research for NASA. Together, the Anghaies received about $3.4 million in contracts. Investigators claim that the couple moved the NASA money from a New Era account to a personal account. The warrant insists the couple "diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegally obtained government funds from their corporate bank account to their personal bank accounts." The Feds are especially interested in Mrs. Anghaie’s role, and especially in how she allegedly included misinformation on NASA contract proposals, and submitted fraudulent invoices for more than what was earned.

Neither Samim nor Sousan have been arrested, but the University of Florida has suspended the professor until this is ironed out.

6 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

The new American pastime: swindling.

By f p on 02/26/2009 9:20 am

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"The Feds are especially interested in Mrs. Anghaie’s role, and especially in how she allegedly included misinformation on NASA contract proposals, and submitted fraudulent invoices for more than what was earned. "

The Feds need to be interested in how the Feds allowed this to happen. Prosecute the criminals, audit the system, overhaul, fire and hire wisely and make sure this type of opportunity no longer exists. Be accountable.

By E . on 02/26/2009 9:28 am

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I kind of figure there would me more people stealing money, big time. Just like Madoff. I just didn’t know who there were.

By Grande Camper on 02/26/2009 9:36 am

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Iranian-born…nuclear power…wonder how this guy caught their eye…sheesh. I hope it wasn’t as easy for him to transplant information as it was to transfer funds.

By Ms. Dee on 02/26/2009 12:53 pm

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Ah Ha, so that’s the reason the feds were all over the place at the U of Fl — it made all the newspapers here and all the tv news stations last night. However, last night no one seemed to know what was going on!

Thank you WOW — I now have the scoop!

By Lady Gator on 02/26/2009 2:13 pm

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What I know this family has done? What **I** know? They’ve all worked nearly 24/7 to advance science in this country. They are ALL US citizens and very loyal. They left Iran in the late 70’s to escape religious persecution because they are NOT muslim and never were.
They’ve not lived big - in fact, what I know of them, as their friend, is that they’ve supported Habitat for Humanity, The Perl Project, and an IRC network that enables open source developers to help each other for the GOOD of ALL mankind.

The press has made this family out to be greedy monsters, but they are far from that. To be honest I do not understand why the US would want to treat them this way - even if there were some impropriety this brilliant family - through their salaries - all over 100k a year - could and probably would have paid it back.
But all projects were completed and delivered. I’m frankly left wondering what the real agenda is here. I’m just a poor nobody - but Ali, one of the two accused sons, has helped me with techincal problems - and many others I know - FOR FREE so many times it boggles my mind.

By Kristi Gilleland on 02/26/2009 4:31 pm