On March 23, federal prosecutors revealed that an Iranian man who had been acting as a consultant to Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York had been charged with violating US laws related to Iran. A number of Iranian websites have published analyses that the US’ primary goal in the arrest is to do another prisoner swap.

According to Reuters, Ahmad Sheikhzadeh was accused of receiving “a cash salary by the Iran mission” that was deposited in a Citibank account. The indictment says that “he also used that account for side transactions with two US-based co-conspirators who wished to invest in Iran.”

Sheikhzadeh, who is 60 and according to his attorney has been living in the US since he was 18, was charged with conspiracy to evade US sanctions against Iran, money laundering and helping arrange false tax returns.

“The arrest of Ahmad Sheikhzadeh, consultant to Iran’s mission to the United Nations on behalf of American prosecutors is a type of hostage taking,” wrote one of the most prominent conservative voices in Iran, Mehdi Mohammadi, who was an adviser to former hard-line nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Mohammadi continued, “I think the prime goal of this hostage taking is for the freedom of the Namazis [Siamak and Baquer], people who the Americans call the biggest source of information on Iran in the last decade.”