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Exclusive: Reuters investigates business empire of Iran's supreme leader ($95 billion)
Reuters ^ | 11/11/2013 | STEVE STECKLOW, BABAK DEHGHANPISHEH AND YEGANEH TORBATI

Posted on 11/11/2013 8:11:54 PM PST by Beave Meister

(Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei controls a business empire worth around $95 billion - a sum exceeding the value of his oil-rich nation's current annual petroleum exports - a six-month Reuters investigation shows.

The little-known organization, called Setad, is one of the keys to the Iranian leader's enduring power and now holds stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, telecommunications, the production of birth-control pills and even ostrich farming.

Setad has built its empire on the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians - members of religious minorities, Shi'ite Muslims, business people and Iranians living abroad.

The Reuters investigation, which is detailed in a three-part series, documents how Setad has amassed a giant portfolio of real estate by claiming in Iranian courts, sometimes falsely, that the properties are abandoned. The organization now holds a court-ordered monopoly on taking property in the name of the supreme leader, and regularly sells the seized properties at auction or seeks to extract payments from the original owners.

Reuters reporters identified nearly 300 properties that Setad put up for auction in May alone, many worth millions of dollars.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: ayatollah; corruption; energy; fraud; iran; islam; islamicrevolution; khamenei; landgrab; landgrabs; muslums; obama; oil; opec; persian; petroleum; reuters; setad; shah; shahofiran; tehran
Louis: "Looking good, Billy Ray."

Billy Ray: "Feeling good, Louis."

1 posted on 11/11/2013 8:11:54 PM PST by Beave Meister
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To: Beave Meister

“It’s good to be the Ayatollah.”


2 posted on 11/11/2013 8:12:43 PM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: dfwgator
Funny, the Ayatollah is doing the same thing the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavī did. I wonder if the students will unite and throw him out.......Nah.
3 posted on 11/11/2013 8:23:16 PM PST by Beave Meister (Die Hard Cubs Fan.....if it takes forever.)
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To: All

that’s about 5 times what zuckerberg stole from the winklevoss twins (well, with the help of the guy who almost got appointed to head the fed)


4 posted on 11/11/2013 8:29:33 PM PST by willywill
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To: Beave Meister
That makes him the world's wealthiest man, no?
5 posted on 11/11/2013 8:30:26 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: All

“The organization now holds a court-ordered monopoly on taking property in the name of the supreme leader”

court ordered to take private property, where have I seen that before?
oh right, eminent domain


6 posted on 11/11/2013 8:34:19 PM PST by willywill
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To: Beave Meister

This is why all the nonsense about Iran’s leaders being suicidal is false. People living the good life don’t want to die. The Iranian leadership like to agitate anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism to distract the Ianian people from their living large but their irrationality is greatly exaggerated.


7 posted on 11/11/2013 8:37:43 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Beave Meister

Communism, monarchy, fascism, it’s all essentially the same (very centralized government).


8 posted on 11/11/2013 9:10:36 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo

Iran’s leaders probably aren’t suicidal, but they are willing to expend millions of their nation’s people for the purpose of trying to excite many millions of other Muslims to war against the West for them.


9 posted on 11/11/2013 9:14:05 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Beave Meister

Don’t let the administration here this or they’ll add this to their agenda. OOOps, it probably is their agenda.


10 posted on 11/12/2013 2:06:33 PM PST by huldah1776
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