On paper, Ameen Cohen is a 37 -year -old banking professional with a trade diploma and a condo in Thornhill, Ontario.
But this is only his last identity.
During an expulsion hearing in Toronto, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) revealed that the Iranian citizen had used no less than three names throughout his life.
He arrived in Canada under the name of Amin Yousefijam and before that, he was Amin Riki. It also appeared that he was a Tehran police lieutenant during his compulsory military service.
ACBS officials said that he had legally changed his name to Cohen in Ontario in 2022 – without disclosing that he had been sentenced to the United States to help Iran escape the sanctions.
The new details on his evolving identity emerged last week during an audience of the board of directors of immigration and refugees who will decide if he should be returned to Iran.
Canadian law enforcement officials want to deport him on the grounds that his role in an Iranian sanctions dodge program makes him a national security threat.
By illegally shipping equipment sensitive to Iran, he has undermined Canada’s efforts to contain the dangers posed by the Islamic Republic, argued the CBSA.
The Toronto resident contributed to “an increased threat of security towards Canada with regard to terrorism and attacks by nuclear weapons”, according to an ACBS report.
His actions “have directly compromised” the Canadian government’s foreign policy on the authoritarian Iran regime, which leads an “resistance axis” which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemens Houthis.
The case comes as the federal government is under pressure to prevent members and supporters of the Iranian repressive regime from using Canada as a refuge.
Amin Yousefijam outside the CRI office in Etobicoke, Ontario, February 26, 2025.
Global News
During the hearing, he said he was born Amin Riki, but legally changed his name to Amin Yousefijam in Iran before arriving in Canada in 2016.
When ACBSA asked if he had done it to hide from the past, he replied: “It is your opinion.”
He said he just didn’t like the way the name Riki sounded and Yousefijam was “the name that resonated me the most.”
As Yousefijam, he was arrested in Toronto in January 2021 American costs alleging that he has sent goods sensitive to Iran in violation of sanctions.
He was detained in Canada for 10 months before being transported to Michigan, where he spent more than a month in detention, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a purged time.
Questioned by the CBSA if he knew that pleading guilty meant admitting his role in the conspiracy, he said that he had only pleaded a plea of guilt because it was the fastest way to resolve the case.
“It was not an admission of guilt,” he insisted.
After his conviction in November 2021, Yousefijam was sent back to Ontario, where he almost immediately asked his name to Ameen Cohen.
On his Ontario name change form, he checked the “no” box in response to questions asking if he had a criminal record in Canada or elsewhere, the CBSA said.
Yousefijam testified that he had phoned an information line from the Ontario government and that he had been told that he only had to disclose convictions in Canada. He said he had checked recently and had the same answer.
Following his testimony, however, Global News also called the Ontario government, but it was said that the convictions had to be disclosed, no matter where they occurred.
“The disclosure of criminal convictions in Canadian jurisdictions and others is required,” said Joey Wu, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Services and Affairs.
The name change form warns applicants that “it is a serious crime under the Canada Criminal Code to make a false declaration.”
Yousefijam denied that he was trying to hide his past and said he only changed his name because his family name was too long and caused him prejudices.
He said he had chosen Cohen’s name because he had English and Persian roots. “It was a personal decision I made,” he said. “I chose a name that resonated me the most.”
His brother ARASH YOUSEFIJAM was also sentenced to sanctions in the conspiracy and changed his name to Aurah Cohen. He told Global News that he had done it because “we want to start a new life”.
Under the name of Aurash Cohen, he became dentist of Ontario but was stripped of his license last fall on the grounds that he was to disclose his criminal history “in any jurisdiction” with the dental register of the province.
The Ontario government said that it was examining its name change system following the brothers.
“The possibility of changing your name should not be an escape from the escape of justice,” said the spokesman for the Minister responsible for the name change register.
“Allowing serious criminal offenders to hide their identity not only undermines the integrity of our judicial system, but also presents a significant risk for our communities.”
The supreme Iranian chief of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listens to the national anthem as a officers of the Air Force Salute, Tehran, Iran, February 7, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Chef via AP).
AGAINST
The ACBS presented his file against Yousefijam during two days of hearings before a member of the board of directors of refugees who will decide to make an expulsion order.
Answering the questions asked by two CBSA officials, Yousefijam said he was involved in the sanctions program at the request of his brother Arash, a naturalized Canadian of Iranian origin whom he described as the chief of the conspiracy.
He said that his brother was recently married and occupied at the time, and asked Yousefijam to take the logistical side of the operation. “He asked me to find a good price, basically, the sender,” he said.
He was close to his brother and considered him “a family obligation to help him,” he said. But he later said that he did not know where his brother lived now, and they only talked about video cats.
Yousefijam denied having experienced operational details and said that her role was limited to sending email, first while living in Iran and later in Canada, after arriving with a permanent resident visa.
The materials were initially dispatched to the United Arab Emirates, then reconditioned for transport to Iran – a tactical manager of ABSA said that it was commonly used to escape the sanctions.
Although he had an MBA, Yousefijam said that he did not know international sanctions and regulations on money laundering until he started a bank job in 2018.
The CISRs had to reign over his expulsion this summer.
Image of Mahsa Amini on the flag in the rally against the Iranian diet, in Washington, DC October 22, 2022. (AP photo / Jose Luis Magana).
Canada launched a repression against Iran in 2022 in response to the deletion by the regime of demonstrations that broke out for the arrest and murder of Mahsa Amini, who was targeted for showing her hair in public.
To put pressure on Tehran, the government has prohibited senior Iranian officials and members of the country’s childcare body while producing those who are already here.
Since then, ACBS has identified 18 alleged senior Iranian officials living in Canada. The CISR has so far rendered expulsion orders against two of them, Seyed Salman Samani and Majid Iranmane.
But the CISR refused to expel two others, and the ACBS withdrawn from another, said an official on Monday.
Neither the IRB nor the ACBA explains why.
In its January 28 report In the event of foreign interference, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue wrote that community members had said to her Iranian officials “live openly and freely in Canada”.
The Iranian regime “wants to exert an influence in Canada because there is a large and well -educated Iranian diaspora,” a witness told The Inquiry, whose name has not been released.
Stewart.bell@globalnews.ca
