On paper, Ameen Cohen is a 37 -year -old bank professional with a business title and a condominium in Thornhill, Ontario.
But that is just his last identity.
At a deportation hearing in Toronto, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) revealed that the Iranian citizen has used no less than three names throughout his life.
He arrived in Canada as Amin Yousefijam and before that was Amin Riki. It was also learned that he was a lieutenant of the Tehran Police during his mandatory military service.
CBSA officials said he legally changed his name to Cohen in Ontario in 2022, without disseminating that he had been convicted in the United States for helping Iran to evade the sanctions.
The new details about their evolution identity arose last week at an immigration audience and refugee board that will decide if it should be sent back to Iran.
The officials of application of Canadian immigration want to deport it with the argument that their role in an Iranian sanctions scheme makes it a national security threat.
By illegally sending sensitive teams to Iran, he undermined Canada's efforts to contain the dangers posed by the Islamic Republic, the CBSA argued.
The Toronto resident contributed to “a greater threat of security to Canada in regard to terrorism and the attack of nuclear weapons,” according to a CBSA report.
His actions “directly committed” the foreign policy of the Canadian government on the authoritarian regime of Iran, which directs a “resistance axis” that includes Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemens' hutis.
The case occurs when the federal government is under pressure to prevent the members and supporters of the Iranian repressive regime from using Canada as a safe refuge.
Amin Yousefijam outside the IRB office in Etobicoke, Ontario, February 26, 2025.
Global news
At the audience, he testified that Amin Riki was born, but legally changed his name to Amin Yousefijam in Iran before arriving in Canada in 2016.
When CBSA asked him if he did to hide from the past, he replied: “That is your opinion.”
He said he simply did not like the way the name Riki and Yousefijam rang was “the name that resonated me the most.”
Like Yousefijam, he was arrested in Toronto in January 2021 in US charges. claiming that he sent products sensitive to Iran in violation of the sanctions.
He was arrested in Canada for 10 months before being transported to Michigan, where he spent more than a month in custody, declared himself guilty and was sentenced in time fulfilled.
When CBSA asked him if he was aware that declaring himself guilty meant admitting his role in the conspiracy, he said he only declared guilty because it was the fastest way to solve the matter.
“It was not an admission of guilt,” he insisted.
After his conviction in November 2021, Yousefijam was returned to Ontario, where he almost immediately requested to change his name to Amen Cohen.
In his Ontario name change form, he marked the “No” box in response to questions that asked if he had a criminal record in Canada or elsewhere, said the CBSA.
Yousefijam testified that he had called a line of information from the Ontario government and told him that he only had to reveal convictions in Canada. He said he reviewed again and received the same answer.
However, after his testimony, Global News also called the Ontario government, but they told him that the convictions had to be revealed no matter where they happened.
“Dissemination of criminal sentences in Canadian and other jurisdictions is required,” confirmed Joey Wu, a spokesman for public and business services.
The name change form warns the applicants that “it is a serious crime under the Criminal Code of Canada to make a false statement.”
Yousefijam denied that he was trying to hide his past and said he only changed his name because his last name was too long and caused him prejudice.
He said he chose Cohen's name because he had English and Persian roots. “That was a personal decision I made,” he said. “I chose a name that resonated me the most.”
His brother ARASH YOSEFIJAM He was also condemned in the conspiracy of sanctions and changed his name to Aurash Cohen. He told Global News that he did it because “we want to start a new life.”
Under the name of Aurash Cohen, he became an Ontario dentist, but he was stripped of his license last fall for the reason that he was required to reveal his criminal history “in any jurisdiction” with the dental registry of the province.
The Ontario government has said that he was investigating his name change system as a result of the brothers.
“The ability to change the name of one should not be an escape to evade justice,” said the spokesman for the minister responsible for the name of the name Change.
“Allowing serious criminal criminals to hide their identities not only undermines the integrity of our justice system, but also presents a significant risk for our communities.”
The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, listens to the national anthem when the Officers of the Salute Air Force, Tehran, Iran, on February 7, 2025. (Iranian Supreme Leader Office through AP).
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The CBSA presented its case against Yousefijam for two days of hearings before a member of the refugee board that will decide whether to issue a deportation order.
Answering the questions posed by two CBSA officials, Yousefijam said he was involved in the sanctions scheme at the request of his brother Arash, a naturalized Canadian born in Iran who described as the leader of the conspiracy.
He said his brother was recently married and busy at that time, and asked Yousefijam to assume the logistics side of the operation. “He asked me to find a good price, basically, charger,” he said.
He was close to his brother and considered him “a family obligation to help him,” he said. But then he said he didn't know where his brother lived, and they only spoke through video chats.
Yousefijam denied knowing any operational detail and said that his role was limited to sending emails, first while living in Iran and later in Canada, after reaching a permanent resident visa.
The materials were initially sent to the United Arab Emirates and then repaired for transport to Iran, a tactic that CBSA officials said it was commonly used to evade sanctions.
While it has an MBA, Yousefijam said it was not familiar with international sanctions and money laundering regulations until a banking work began in 2018.
IRB were expected to govern their deportation this summer.
Image of Mahsa Amini on the flag in rally against the Iranian regime, in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana).
Canada launched an offensive against Iran in 2022 in response to the suppression of the regime of protests that exploded on the arrest and murder of Mahsa Amini, who was the goal of showing his hair in public.
To press Tehran, the Government prohibited the high Iranian officials and members of the body of the Islamic Revolution of the country while promising those who are already here.
Since then, the CBSA has identified 18 senior Iranian officials living in Canada. The IRB has issued deportation orders against two of them so far, Seyed Salman Samani and Majid Iranmanesh.
But IRB has refused to expel two others, and the CBSA has withdrawn its case against another, Elham Zandi, an official said Monday.
Neither the IRB nor the CBSA would explain why.
On January 28 report On the foreign interference, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that community members had told their Iranian officials “live openly and freely in Canada.”
The Iranian regime “wants to influence Canada because there is a large and well -educated Iranian diaspora,” said a witness, whose name was not launched, to the investigation.
Stewart.bell@globalnews.ca