Manucher Ghorbanifar, born on May 9, 1945, in Iran, is an expatriate Iranian arms dealer and former intelligence operative. He served as an agent of SAVAK, the pre-revolutionary Iranian intelligence service under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ghorbanifar fled Iran and established himself in the international arms trade. He became a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair in the mid-1980s, acting as an intermediary for covert U.S. arms sales to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages, with proceeds diverted to support the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in violation of U.S. law and policy. He was also involved in the 2001 Rome back-channel meetings. Ghorbanifar was known for providing intelligence to U.S. and Israeli entities, though his reliability was frequently questioned; the CIA placed him on its "burn notice" list, deeming him a fabricator of intelligence in the 1980s. He has been accused of deception and double-dealing, failed polygraph tests, and was banned from certain U.S. intelligence collaborations. Despite these controversies, Ghorbanifar has remained active in geopolitical and arms-related networks, often operating from Europe. His career highlights the shadowy intersections of exile politics, arms trafficking, and intelligence brokerage.