The CBSA revealed that a Toronto man who helped Iran evade sanctions use three identities.

On paper, Ameen Cohen is a 37-year-old banking professional with a business degree and owns an apartment in Thornhill, Ontario.

But this is just his latest identity.

At a deportation hearing in Toronto, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) revealed that Iranian citizens have used no less than three names throughout their lives.

He arrived in Canada as Amin Yousefijam, before that, he was Amin Riki. It also showed that he was a Tehran police lieutenant during his forced military service.

CBSA officials said he legally renamed his name to Cohen, Ontario in 2022 – without revealing that he was convicted in the United States to help Iran evade sanctions.

New details about his evolving identity appeared last week at a hearing of the Immigration and Refugee Commission, which decided whether it should be sent back to Iran.

Canadian immigration law enforcement officers want to expel him on the grounds of his role in Iran's sanctions program, which makes him a national security threat.

The CBSA believes that by illegally transporting sensitive equipment to Iran, he undermined Canada's efforts to control the dangers posed by the Islamic Republic.

According to a report by the CBSA, Toronto residents have fueled “an increase in Canadian security threats to terrorism and nuclear weapons attacks.”

His actions “directly compromised” the Canadian government’s foreign policy towards the Iranian autocratic regime, which led the “axis of resistance” including Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemans’ Hottis.

The case is because the federal government is under pressure to block members and supporters of the Iranian regime and use Canada as a safe haven.

During the hearing, he testified that he was born in Amin Riki but legally changed his name to Amin Yousefijam of Iran before arriving in Canada in 2016.

When the CBSA asked him if he did this, he replied: “This is your opinion.”

He said he didn't like the name Riki sent out at all, and Yousefijam was “the name that resonated with me the most”.

When Yousefijam, he was arrested in Toronto in January 2021 on U.S. charges accusing him of violating sanctions by shipping sensitive goods to Iran.

After being sent to Michigan, he was detained in Canada for 10 months, where he was detained for more than a month, pleaded guilty and sentenced to time.

Asked by CBS whether he knew that pleading guilty means admitting his role in the conspiracy, he said he only had to plead guilty because it was the quickest way to solve the problem.

“It's not guilt,” he insisted.

After his conviction in November 2021, Yousefijam was returned to Ontario, where he applied almost immediately to rename his name Ameen Cohen.

The CBSA said he was on the Ontario name change form to ask him about having a criminal record in Canada or elsewhere, giving the No box.

Yousefijam testified that he called the Ontario Government Information Line and was told that he only needed to disclose his conviction in Canada. He said he checked again recently and got the same response.

However, after his testimony, Global News also called the Ontario government, but the conviction must be disclosed wherever it happens.

“There is a need to disclose a criminal conviction in Canada and other jurisdictions,” Joey Wu, a spokesman for the Department of Public and Commercial Services.

The name change form warns applicants: “Under the Canadian Penal Code, making false statements is a serious crime.”

Yousefijam denied that he tried to cover up his past and claimed that he had only changed his name because his last name was too long, which made him biased.

He said he chose the name Cohen because it has English and Persian roots. “That was my personal decision,” he said. “I chose a name that resonated with me the most.”

His brother Arash Yousefijam was also convicted in the sanctions plot and changed his name to Aurash Cohen. He told Global News that he did this because “we want to start a new life.”

He became a dentist in Ontario under the name of Aurash Cohen, but last fall he was denied his permission on the grounds that he was asked to disclose his criminal history “in the province’s dental registry” “any jurisdiction.”

The Ontario government said it is working on its name change system due to the brothers' results.

A ministerial spokesman responsible for the “change name” registry said: “The ability to change names should not be to escape the loopholes of justice.”

“Allowing serious criminal offenders to cover up their identity not only undermines the integrity of our judicial system, but also poses a significant risk to our community.”

The CBSA filed a lawsuit against Yousefijam at a hearing and they will decide whether to issue an eviction order.

Responding to questions raised by two CBSA officials, Yousefijam said he was involved in the sanctions program at the request of his brother Arash, who is an Iran-born Canadian naturalized Canadian, and he was described as a conspiracy leader.

He said his brother was recently married and busy and asked Yousefijam to take on the logistical aspect of the operation. “He asked me to find a good price, basically a shipper,” he said.

He is close to his brother and thinks it is a “family obligation to help him.” But he later said he had no idea where his brother lives now, and they spoke only through video chat.

Yousefijam denied knowing any operational details and said his role was limited to sending emails, first living in Iran and later residing in Canada, he arrived on a permanent resident visa.

The materials were initially shipped to the United Arab Emirates and then repackaged to Iran for shipping – often used to evade sanctions, CBSA officials said.

Although Yousefijam has an MBA, he was not familiar with international sanctions and money laundering regulations before he started a banking industry in 2018.

The IRB is expected to rule his deportation this summer.

Canada launched a crackdown on Iran in 2022 in response to the regime’s crackdown on protests, a protest against the arrest and killing of Mahsa Amini, targeting public display of hair.

To put pressure on Tehran, the government banned senior Iranian officials and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard while vowing to deport those who were already here.

Since then, the CBSA has identified 18 senior Iranian officials suspected of living in Canada. The IRB has made two deportation orders to date, Seyed Salman Samani and Majid Iranmanesh.

But the IRB refused to expel two other people and the CBSA withdrew its case against another, an official said Monday.

Neither the IRB nor the CBSA will explain the reason.

In a report on foreign intervention on January 28, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that community members told her Iranian officials that they were “living openly and freely in Canada.”

The Iranian regime “want to exert influence in Canada because there is a huge and well-educated Iranian diaspora” whose name has not been released, his name has not been released.

stewart.bell@globalnews.ca