Most Westerners most likely do not know an excessive amount of about Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The truth is, most Westerners do not know an excessive amount of about Iran normally! One of many first issues you must find out about Iran is that it has a democratically elected president! Fairly cool! The present president of Iran is Masoud Pezeshkian. However, regardless of having a democratically elected president, the nation is definitely managed by a single “Supreme Chief,” often known as the Ayatollah, often known as the Guardian Jurist of Iran. The present Supreme Chief is the aforementioned Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Supreme Chief is Iran’s non secular authority and is accountable for choosing the entire nation‘s highest officers. For this monumental problem, the Supreme Chief doesn’t truly earn a wage. He does it out of the goodness of his coronary heart, within the obligation of Islam and Iran.
However, Iran’s Supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, allegedly personally oversees an actual property, monetary, and manufacturing empire that has been described by US officers as an “off-the-books hedge fund” that controls $200 billion in property.
From Revolution to Supreme Rule
Ali Khamenei was born on July 17, 1935, in Mashhad, Iran. He’s the second Supreme Chief of Iran, having taken over from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (no relation regardless of the same sounding final names) upon his dying in 1989. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is credited with being the driving pressure behind the revolution that ousted the pro-western Shah of Iran in 1979. Ousting the Shah turned Iran from a comparatively westernized, free nation again into a particularly conservative Islamist state.
As an apart, previous to being ousted, the Shah of Iran, often known as Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, managed practically the entire oil income generated by his nation. Within the Sixties, he was making $12 million PER MONTH in oil dividends. That is the identical as round $115 million per thirty days right now. In 1979, the yr he was ousted, the Shah’s internet price was $2 billion, and his prolonged household managed one other $2 billion in wealth stashed across the globe.
Dissidents on the time of his ouster offered an accounting of a number of the Shah’s most vital private property. These property included majority fairness stakes in:
17 banks 80% of Iran’s largest insurance coverage firm 25 steel manufacturing firms 8 mining operations 25% of Iran’s largest cement firm 45 development firms 43 meals manufacturing firms An possession stake in each single main lodge in Iran. One estimate claimed the Shah personally owned 70% of the nation‘s lodge rooms 10% of Basic Motors Iran
So mayyyyyybe the Shah’s critics had a proper to be upset.
The Origins of Setad
The aftermath of the Islamic Revolution created an fascinating drawback in Iran. The sudden departure of the Shah, the whole prolonged royal household, and plenty of previously high-powered households meant that hundreds of firms, actual property portfolios, and financial institution accounts have been deserted and primarily up for grabs.
Countless lawsuits and confrontations have been spawned to resolve the disputes, however there was nonetheless a whole lot of confusion even 10 years later. So, in April 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini wrote and signed a two-paragraph edict that launched a brand new company entity known as Setad. Technically, Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam, which interprets to “Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam.” Two of Ayatollah’s most trusted advisors have been positioned accountable for Setad. Setad was then given the ability to make the ultimate determination on all seized and disputed property.
Two months after creating Setad, on June third, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died on the age of 86. He was shortly succeeded by his former pupil, Ali Khamenei.
Setad’s Enlargement Below Khamenei
As we beforehand acknowledged, the unique function of Setad was to supervise all of Iran’s disputed and seized property, particularly these linked to the Shah and prolonged members of the previous royal household. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini additionally meant for Setad to be dismantled after two years.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei didn’t dismantle Setad after two years. The truth is, he has spent the final a number of a long time increasing Setad’s energy and affect to an exponential diploma. Setad has slowly acquired giant fairness stakes in each side of Iran’s economic system.
Over the a long time, Setad has quietly grown into one of the crucial highly effective and secretive financial forces in Iran. It holds stakes in practically each sector, together with finance, agriculture, telecommunications, and even prescription drugs. In 2021, the ability of Setad was publicly cemented when Iran’s then-new president, Ebrahim Raisi, appointed Mohammad Mokhber—the long-time head of Setad—because the nation‘s First Vice President. Mokhber had managed Setad since 2007 and was beneath U.S. sanctions for utilizing the group to counterpoint the Supreme Chief. His elevation to the chief department was seen as a transparent signal that Setad’s affect now stretches from the economic system into the core of Iran’s political system.
An Off-The-Books $200 Billion Hedge Fund
In line with an expose by Reuters in 2013, “Setad’s portfolio contains banks, farms, cement firms, a licensed contraceptives maker, flats seized from Iranians dwelling overseas and way more.”
Utilizing data gathered from the Tehran Inventory Change, nameless ideas, and a report from the US Division of Treasury, Reuters estimated that Setad managed property that had a complete worth of at the very least $95 billion. And who allegedly controls Setad? One particular person: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In 2019, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad claimed the true determine might be nearer to $200 billion.
In 2018, then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Setad as Khamenei’s private “off-the-books hedge fund.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei / OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI/AFP/Getty Photos
The Supreme Chief‘s Life-style
So, is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a secret multi-billionaire capitalist tycoon disguised as a pious non secular chief? The reply to that query is just a little murky. From what the US Treasury Division has been in a position to decide, the present Supreme Chief doesn’t use any of his billions in any apparent strategy to profit himself personally. He lives in a modest home in Tehran that has modest furnishings. The home is positioned inside a compound that’s owned by Setad for apparent safety causes. Virtually each side of his life is extraordinarily modest.
Seizures, Intimidation, and Setad’s Energy
One of the controversial features of Setad’s huge enterprise empire is the tactic by which lots of the property have reportedly been acquired. What started as a corporation meant to resolve asset disputes has reworked right into a pressure that allegedly seizes property utilizing mafia-like techniques. One outstanding instance entails Parsian Financial institution, as soon as Iran’s largest non-state-owned monetary establishment. After its executives clashed with Setad management, the financial institution was seized, and its leaders have been positioned beneath home arrest. Virtually in a single day, Parsian’s property have been redirected to learn Setad and its associates.
In one other placing case from 2019, an Iranian courtroom ordered the confiscation of all properties owned by Baha’i households within the village of Ivel, branding their faith as a “perverse ideology.” The property have been handed over to Setad, highlighting how non secular minorities have usually been focused beneath the guise of authorized enforcement.
A pair interviewed by Reuters in California produced documentation exhibiting that Setad had seized their property a long time in the past on account of alleged ties to the Shah. That actual property is now a part of a publicly traded firm managed by Setad. Had they retained possession, the couple estimates their stake could be price over $100 million right now. As an alternative, they obtained nothing.
Silencing Inner Dissent
Even outstanding insiders have did not problem the dimensions of Khamenei’s empire. In 2016, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani publicly referenced billions managed by Khamenei’s household. Not lengthy after, his son Mehdi was sentenced to a decade in jail for corruption—extensively seen as retaliation. The message was clear: even these throughout the regime danger punishment for exposing the Supreme Chief‘s monetary energy.
Empire Below Strain
Regardless of Khamenei’s modest private look, the Treasury Division and different observers imagine he maintains entry to an immense private fortune by Setad. Controlling this empire grants him extraordinary leverage inside Iran, with revenues that may be channeled into any venture deemed important to preserving the regime’s lifestyle.
In 2024, a leaked report revealed that Setad was concerned in a $500 million oil smuggling scheme. Below the pretense of circumventing sanctions, a dealer was given entry to state oil for abroad sale—however the proceeds have been by no means returned to Iran. Insiders are believed to have embezzled the funds. The scandal uncovered how even inside this tightly managed empire, corruption and private achieve stay attainable.
Official Denials
Iranian authorities officers have repeatedly dismissed experiences by the U.S. Treasury Division and investigative journalists, labeling them “baseless” and “scattered.”