A California woman admitted to being duped by – and in turn unknowingly helping – a group of Iranian operatives in their failed mission to kidnap a Brooklyn-based journalist critical of Tehran.  

Niloufar Bahadorifar is not accused of participating in the 2021 plot to abduct Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, but prosecutors said she unwittingly acted as the middle-person for four Iranians – all charged by the feds – and an American private investigator they hired to keep eyes on the targeted journalist.

Bahadorifar said in court she sent funds to the investigator on behalf of a longtime family friend, who is a government official in Iran.

The money was sent over PayPal, but she claimed she didn’t know the funds were going toward surveillance of Alinejad, who has fiercely slammed the Islamic Republic for its human rights abuses.

Bahadorifar pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate US economic sanctions on Iran.

Bahadorifar’s lawyer insisted to the New York Times his client was just another victim of a “cancerous Iranian regime.”

“When Iran’s terrorist leaders aren’t slaughtering their own people,” Jeffrey Lichtman said, “they’re traveling the globe trying to kill their critics, including the despicable manipulation of Ms. Bahadorifar by an old family friend.”

The private investigator, who has not been charged, said he had no idea the people he was working for were Iranian agents and has cooperated with the FBI.

Alinejad, who became a US citizen in 2019, fled Iran following the 2009 presidential election.

An Iranian operative and three others in her case have not been taken into custody because they are believed to reside in Iran, prosecutors said, according to the Times. They have denied the charges.

Police arrested another man near Alinejad’s home with a loaded assault rifle last summer. Alinejad said footage she posted from a camera showed the suspect outside her door in Brooklyn.

Bahadorifar will be sentenced on April 7. 

With Post wires