A federal judge has ordered the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office to respond to allegations that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from an Iranian businessman who was convicted of funneling more than $115 million through the American financial system in violation of U.S. economic sanctions.

In a four-page order, U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Southern District of New York said Tuesday the case raised "serious concerns about the conduct of the government" toward defendant Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, an Iranian national who has been under criminal indictment for more than two years in an alleged money-laundering scheme he ran out of Venezuela.

A federal jury convicted Sadr on five counts in March, following a two-week trial that was complicated at the time by the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic. However, court filings, and Nathan's ruling, have revealed that the prosecution had been marred by alleged Brady violation accusations of wrongdoing by prosecutors.