JERUSALEM, Israel – Before a missile strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he oversaw oppression and funded terror groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Investigations reveal that he also controlled a financial empire, which is now headed by his son, Mojtaba, Iran’s new supreme leader.
Khamenei’s amassing of wealth contrasts sharply with the poverty many Iranians face today.
As U.S. and Israeli missiles hit Tehran, residents cheered. It was an ironic, yet telling, response of a population tired of oppression.
Dan Diker, director of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told CBN News, “This entire massive, evolving demonstration by the Iranian people began as an economic grievance. And, you know, there’s is no water in Iran. There’s, the economy is in tatters. Their people are hungry. Inflation is in the hundreds of percent.”
Until his death, Khamenei was a billionaire who portrayed himself as a modest religious leader.
Diker noted, “The Iranian regime has always lived according to the principle of what’s called Taqiyya, which means deception or dissimulation.
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According to a 2013 investigative report by Reuters, Khamenei controlled or influenced a hidden business empire with stakes in oil, banking, telecommunications, and even the manufacturing of birth control pills.
Dr. Udi Levy from the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security told us, “I know that it sounds like a dream, but it’s something around $100 billion.”
Levy is a former Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer who managed Israel’s campaign against terror financing. He explained that the money flowed in after the Obama administration lifted Iranian sanctions in 2016.
He noted, “Since then, we saw billions of dollars – billions of dollars – move from Iran to the private pockets of the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard.”
The financial system known as SETAD consolidates power under the supreme leader while providing luxurious lives for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its proxy groups, and Khamenei’s family members, including his son, Mojtaba, Iran’s new supreme leader.
“Khamenei’s son owns two major properties in London overlooking the Israeli embassy in London,” Diker revealed.
Add to that cryptocurrency holdings, a private villa in Dubai, and luxury hotels in Europe. Records show the operation laundered money and built a massive real estate portfolio by seizing property.
They take real estate from the poor people, from the poor people,” Levy emphasized. “This is something very close to what Assad did in Syria. They took the assets, and they canceled all the privileges of those people about this property and took it for themselves.”
All while many ordinary Iranians live in poverty, with estimates that more than half of the population suffers from malnutrition.
“They don’t have anything. They cannot buy anything. They cannot get anything. There is no service, nothing. And on the other hand, people that belong to the regime (are) living very well,” Levy observed.
While there is no direct evidence that Khamenei or his son personally pocketed the money, Dr. Levy believes it’s a major reason the IRGC chose Mojtaba as their new leader, reportedly against his father’s wishes, and it explains why the regime will likely fight to the end.
“If you ask me, it’s not the ideology, it’s the assets, the money,” Levy stated. “They’re afraid that they’re going to lose a huge amount of money that they have.”
In addition to fighting Iran, Dr. Levy contends that Israel and the U.S need to focus more on confiscating Iranian assets, which he believes is the best way to convince the regime to lay down their arms.
