The prosecution by the U.S. attorney in Atlanta of a renowned Iranian medical researcher and two former students now teaching in the U.S. includes a fourth physician — an Iranian American who fled persecution in his home country three decades ago.

But indictments of Iranian national Matteo Taerri, a former Atlanta physician now living in Tampa, by federal grand juries in Atlanta and Tampa and court records suggest federal authorities led by agents with the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security may have cobbled together an alleged conspiracy.

Ensnared are Dr. Masoud Soleimani, an internationally renowned Iranian medical researcher who has produced ground-breaking research in stem cell and regenerative medicine at the University of Tehran; a well-respected assistant professor and senior researcher at Yale University's medical school; and a medical researcher in regenerative medicine in Kentucky.