Los Angeles ( CNN ) -- Reza Taghavi , an Iranian-American detained for more than two years in Iran , returned to the United States Thursday evening . The retired businessman from Orange County , California , was released Saturday . He had been held in Iran 's notorious Evin prison since May 2008 on suspicion of supporting an anti-regime group . Taghavi 's lawyer , Pierre-Richard Prosper , had been negotiating Taghavi 's release since September 2009 . Saturday 's release was the product of three trips to Iran , meetings with Iranian officials in New York and Europe , and close to 300 e-mails with Iranian officials , he said . Taghavi , 71 , traveled frequently to Iran to visit family and friends without incident , according to Prosper . In April 2008 , Taghavi went to Tehran with his wife . Before he left , he was asked by an acquaintance in Los Angeles named Imran Afar to take $ 200 for a friend in Tehran `` who was down on his luck , '' Prosper said . Los Angeles has a large Persian community . Taghavi did not know the individual to whom he was asked to deliver the money , Prosper said . He handed it over and two weeks later was detained by Iranian authorities , after the recipient of the money was arrested on charges of association with an anti-regime group called Tondar . Prosper said Afar provided him with information he shared with the Iranian government that proved that Taghavi was not part of Tondar , which seeks to restore the monarchy in Iran . The group claimed responsibility for the April 12 , 2008 , bombing of the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada mosque in the city of Shiraz . `` This is the product of fourteen months of nonstop negotiations with the Iranian government and authorities , '' Prosper said Saturday . `` They finally got to the point where they realized he was used by this organization and he does not pose a threat to them . '' Prosper said Taghavi 's case has thus far been `` suspended , '' but that he hopes after working out `` some final details '' with Iranian authorities , the case will be dismissed outright . Although Taghavi continues to maintain his innocence , Prosper said a condition of his release was that he travel to Shiraz before leaving the country to visit the sight of the mosque bombing and to meet with a survivors ' group . Taghavi also agreed to share the story of the circumstances of how he was taken advantage of by Tondar . `` He is more than happy to that , as he feels aggrieved '' by the group , Prosper said . Taghavi 's is a rag-to-riches story , his 36-year-old daughter , Leila Taghavi , told CNN in March . He brought his family to the United States in 1979 , before the Iranian Revolution , and stayed on in California to keep his family safe . Leila Taghavi said her father taught himself English , started a video game company in his garage and grew it into a successful corporation , which he handed over to his son when he retired 10 years ago . `` His life was the American dream , '' Leila said . `` He learned everything the hard way , sacrificed for his children and taught us to be grateful for the good things . He is wonderful , honest and generous , the kind of father every daughter would want . '' The family was silent for more than a year about his arrest , fearful that speaking out would politicize the case in Tehran and Washington . `` It was blind faith , really , '' Leila said , explaining the silence . `` Not knowing it would take this long , and fear of the system . There was never a doubt of his innocence . '' In September 2009 , with no movement on the case and losing hope he would be released , the family hired Prosper to contact the State Department and initiate a dialogue with the Iranian government . The United States and Iran do not have formal relations , and Switzerland serves as the `` protecting power '' for the U.S. in Tehran . Prosper , who served as the ambassador-at-large for war crimes under the Bush administration and as a prosecutor for the Rwanda tribunal at the Hague , said he kept the State Department informed about the case , but did not ask for U.S. intervention out of fear Taghavi would become a political pawn by Iran in its standoff with the United States over Tehran 's nuclear program . `` It was a conscious decision not to engage them in the effort , '' he said . He added that political upheaval in Iran after 2009 's disputed presidential election and the government 's subsequent violent crackdown on demonstrators complicated his efforts . Other Americans remain in prison in Iran . American hikers Josh Fattal , Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were detained in Iran on July 31 , 2009 . According to their families , they accidentally strayed across an unmarked border into Iran while on a hiking trip in Iraq 's Kurdistan region . Shourd was released last month , while Bauer and Fattal are still being held on espionage charges . Kian Tajbakhsh , an Iranian-American scholar who spent four months in jail in 2007 , was arrested in July after the disputed presidential election and sentenced to 15 years in jail for spying . An appeals court later reduced his sentence to five years . The United States has no information about Robert Levinson , a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran almost three years ago . CNN 's Elise Labott contributed to this report .
Retired businessman Reza Taghavi was released Saturday , his lawyer says . In 2008 , Taghavi was arrested on suspicion of supporting an anti-regime group . Taghavi has a rags-to-riches story , his daughter says .