Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad testified yesterday in his own defence at the New York trial he is facing for busting US sanctions against Iran and for bank fraud. It is rare for a criminal case defendant to testify in their own case and they cannot be forced to do so. However, now that he has testified he will need to sit for cross-examination by the prosecution.

Answering questions to his second lawyer Brian Heberlig, Ali Sadr testified recalled his student days in Iran. He said that in 1999 he was arrested while still a student at Tehran University. He was, he said, tortured in detention. This forced him to consider leaving his native country and his first stop was Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

From there he moved to the United States. This, he said, was his destination also because he had already been to American when he was 14 years old. At the time he had visited California and Washington DC and he had wished he had stayed there.

Ali Sadr’s mother and sister had moved to the United States in 1998 but he could not join them at first because he was expected to spend the obligatory time in military service. However Ali Sadr said that by May 2000 when he first moved to New Jersey he had never served in the Iranian army. From New Jersey he later moved to Washington DC.

Ali Sadr pointed out that by then all his family except his father had moved to the United States.

While in the US Ali Sadr acquired a degree from Cornell University and he followed his first degree with a masters in 2005. He described university experience in the US as amazing in contrast with his time in Tehran University.

After studying he set up a real estate development company called SPAN which built a shopping centre which was rented to Papa John’s. After a while SPAN sold the shopping centre.

During the 2008 financial crisis Ali Sadr started A&R Capital Partners, a private equity firm that raised seed money to invest in start-ups.

Ali Sadr explained that he had applied for an acquired political asylum in the United States. However this was revoked along with the permission for him to work in the United States when the lawyer who represented him was caught up in an investigation by US authorities. He was removed from the United States after this and was not allowed to return.

This is when he decided to acquire from Henley & Partners the citizenship of Saint Kitts & Nevis. On the back of that citizenship he acquired a US green card in November 2012 moving back to Washington with his first wife whom he later divorced.

Using his Saint Kitts & Nevis passport he moved to Dubai, Switzerland and Turkey. He also visited Iran while his father was undergoing chemotherapy.

Ali Sadr testified that after this his father did a project in Turkmenistan and set up a private bank in Iran that employs over 10,000 people. Asked by his lawyer whether he believed his father supported the Iranian government in any way, Ali Sadr said he didn’t.

Speaking about the Venezuela project that is the subject of the present trial Ali Sadr said that at first the project was paid for in euro which sidesteps US sanctions against Iran. But payments were held up for months because they needed to pass through the Iranian state bank.

The case continues.

This reporting is based on the coverage by Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee who is following the Ali Sadr trial in New York.