Iranian authorities secretly acquired the FindFace facial recognition system developed by Russia’s NtechLab, using Iranian intermediary companies to circumvent Western sanctions, according to a joint investigation published March 4, 2026.
The investigation was coordinated by Forbidden Stories in partnership with Le Monde, Papertrail Media, Der Spiegel, and ZDF, with support from The Signals Network, a whistleblower support organization, and is based on documents from Iranian and Russian companies.
An Iranian company called Rasadco purchased FindFace directly from NtechLab on August 19, 2019. Rasadco was subsequently absorbed by a larger company called Kama, led by a figure with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Kama then distributed the FindFace software to multiple Iranian state entities, including the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.
NtechLab is owned through Rostec, Russia’s military-industrial holding company, which reports to the Ministry of Defense and is headed by a close associate of Vladimir Putin. The EU sanctioned NtechLab in July 2023 for serious human rights violations in Russia, and the US blacklisted the company in December 2024 for actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. The IRGC was designated by the EU as a terrorist organization in January 2026.
FindFace, also marketed as FindFace Multi, is a facial recognition platform NtechLab began developing in 2015 that can identify individuals in real-time video streams. The system powers a surveillance camera network of more than 100,000 cameras in Moscow, where it has been used to track independent journalists and supporters of Alexei Navalny. NtechLab claims 400 major customers in 34 countries, but Iran does not appear on its official customer list.
The investigation adds new detail to Iran’s documented expansion of facial recognition surveillance infrastructure. In March 2025, Iran unveiled a national AI platform featuring facial recognition and natural language processing capabilities. Iranian authorities have also deployed a biometric surveillance system specifically to monitor Afghan migrants, expanding the state’s use of identity-based tracking technologies.
The acquisition’s structure, routing a purchase through a series of Iranian companies to obscure the transaction from Western scrutiny, illustrates how sanctioned surveillance technologies continue to reach authoritarian governments. NtechLab’s international footprint remains significant despite sanctions: a leaked 2022 client list included major Western companies such as Intel and Dell among the firm’s more than 1,100 reported customers worldwide.
Sources: Forbidden Stories, Le Monde
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
