A controversial Iranian TV spy thriller is once again generating buzz in the Islamic Republic.

Newly filed court documents show that the FBI opened an investigation into Hekmati, on suspicions that he went to Iran to sell classified information to the regime. His lawyers say the government's suspicions, detailed in FBI documents and letters from the fund's special master denying payments, are groundless and based on hearsay. AdBut the FBI concluded that he went there intent on selling Iran classified information, according to an unsigned five-page summary of its investigation. Hekmati, the son of Iranian immigrants, says he researched Iran openly to cultivate an expertise on Iranian influence in Afghanistan. After Hekmati's lawyers warned they'd have to sue, the Justice Department cryptically indicated it was seeking a reconsideration of the award.

FILE -- In this Jan. 16, 2017 file photo, Richard Ratcliffe husband of imprisoned British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, poses during an Amnesty International led vigil outside the Iranian Embassy in London. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, Iran's state TV, citing unnamed official, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces a new charge but did not elaborate. Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been released from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic after serving nearly all of her five-year sentence. She was arrested during a holiday with her toddler daughter in April 2016. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

FILE -- In this Jan. 16, 2017 file photo, Richard Ratcliffe husband of imprisoned British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, poses during an Amnesty International led vigil outside the Iranian Embassy in London. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, Iran's state TV, citing unnamed official, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces a new charge but did not elaborate. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)TEHRAN – A British Iranian dual national held in Tehran in an internationally criticized espionage case faces a new charge, Iranian state television announced Tuesday, raising fears she could be forced to return to prison following her temporary release. A U.N. panel has described “an emerging pattern involving the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of dual nationals” in Iran, which Tehran denies. The Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO, Antonio Zappulla, condemned the new charge, saying it would prolong Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s “inhumane and unjust ordeal."