By Hamid Yazdan Panah

A new report by Reuters has uncovered the vast financial empire of Ali Khamanei. According to the report, which was based on a 6 month investigation, Khamanei “controls a business empire worth around $95 billion – a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation’s current annual petroleum exports.”

Khamanei uses the business front known as “Setad” to extend his influence into every corner of the Iranian economy, including: “finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming.”

The report highlights how Khamanei has systematically stolen and looted from the Iranian people, which includes his practice of confiscating properties from ordinary Iranians comprised of “members of religious minorities, Shi’ite Muslims, business people and Iranians living abroad.”  Under the pretense of operating under the Supreme Leader, Setad has used the country’s judiciary as a tool to seize properties and auction them off.
Reuters estimates Setad’s total net work to be “around $95 billion, made up of about $52 billion in real estate and $43 billion in corporate holding.” Giving Khamanei access to financial resources which rival that of the Shah.

As most analysts have noted, the Iranian regime has shifted from operating purely based on ideological motivations, to ensuring its own survival through an incentivized economic foundation which combines State power with industry. The Revolutionary Guard’s heavy involvement in the economy further accentuates this fact.  The combination of unlimited state power and control of the marketplace is reminiscent of fascist governments of Western Europe.

Khamanei has not only looted the country of wealth for the benefit of himself and his cronies, but he has utilized his position as a means of survival.

As Reuters noted; “The revenue stream generated by Setad helps explain why he has not only held on for 24 years but also in some ways has more control than even his revered predecessor. Setad gives him the financial means to operate independently of parliament and the national budget, insulating him from Iran’s messy factional infighting.”

Part Two of the Reuters report covers the development of Setad over the years, and it’s ability to shield Khamanei from the impact of sanctions, as well as the contradictory nature of Setad when compared to the purported ideology of Khamanei. “The business empire controlled by Iran’s supreme leader had grown so large that it now owned companies whose products Khamenei opposes. That expansion was the direct result of a legal strategy that came from the very top.”
It should be noted that many Western companies continue to do business with Setad, and have benefitted from Khamanei’s empire of greed. “Even as Setad was gaining ever-greater control over the Iranian economy in recent years, the Western powers knew of the organization and its connection to the supreme leader – the one man with the power to halt Tehran’s uranium-enrichment program. But they moved cautiously, and Setad largely escaped foreign pressure.”
Once again we see the policy of appeasement employed by the West benefitting the ruling clergy in Iran and undermining the hopes of the Iranian people who remain victims of this regime.

The fact remains that Khamanei and his backers have kept an iron grip on power through the use of terror, repression and domination of the economy. This report by Reuters helps bring to light the true nature of the Islamic Republic as a fascist entity ruled by thugs and driven by greed and profits.

Hamid Yazdan Panah is an Iranian-American human rights activist and attorney focused on immigration and asylum in the San Francisco Bay Area.