How Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei built a global property empire

Key topics:Mojtaba Khamenei secretly controls billions via UK, Dubai, and EU assets.Ali Ansari acts as key financial conduit for Khamenei's overseas empire.UK, EU, and German authorities scrutinise hidden Iranian elite investments..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Ben Bartenstein.On a tree-lined street in north London, known as “Billionaire’s Row,” a clutch of mostly empty mansions sit behind tall hedges and blacked-out gates. As school children wander by, private guards in dark SUVs patrol outside.Behind the facades of these luxury homes on The Bishops Avenue lies a network stretching from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt. The ultimate ownership traces back, through layers of shell companies, to one of the most powerful men in the Middle East: Mojtaba Khamenei, the second-eldest son of Iran’s Supreme Leader.The 56-year-old cleric, touted as a potential successor to his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oversees a sprawling investment empire, according to people familiar with the matter and the assessment of a leading Western intelligence agency. The people said that while the younger Khamenei refrains from putting assets in his own name, he has been directly involved in the deals, some of which stretch back at least as far as 2011. His financial power has embraced everything from Persian Gulf shipping to Swiss bank accounts and British luxury property worth in excess of £100 million ($138 million), say the people, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution or because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Together, the web of firms has helped Khamenei to channel funds — by some estimates in the billions of dollars — into Western markets, despite US sanctions imposed on him in 2019. .Read more:.No tears for Khamenei: The lesson South Africa’s solidarity industry refuses to learn — Tim Flack.That includes prime real estate — one house cost £33.7 million when it was bought in 2014 — in several of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods, a villa in an area dubbed the “Beverly Hills of Dubai” and upscale European hotels from Frankfurt to Mallorca. Funds for the transactions have been routed through accounts at banks in the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter. The funds originate primarily from Iranian oil sales, the people said.None of the documents seen by Bloomberg list assets directly in Khamenei's name. Instead, many of the purchases appear in the name of an Iranian businessman, Ali Ansari, sanctioned by the UK in October. Iran’s state media depicts the Supreme Leader and his family — part of a revolutionary movement that toppled a monarch in 1979 in the name of the poor and Islam — as living an austere and pious life. There’s little indication the family has used the foreign assets to fund lavish lifestyles. Still, the hidden fortune of the younger Khamenei conflicts with that image of piety promoted by the regime, especially in the wake of rising poverty and widespread unrest and protests against the Islamic Republic that have helped rally support for the ousted monarchy and seen thousands killed in Iran since the start of the year.Anger directed at high levels of economic corruption and mismanagement in the regime often target the aghazadeh, a pejorative used to describe children of the elite accused of amassing great wealth thanks to the political connections of their relatives..A year-long Bloomberg News investigation reveals how the family’s financial reach has expanded beyond the borders of the Islamic Republic. This story is based on interviews with people who have direct knowledge of Mojtaba Khamenei’s financial dealings as well as a review of real estate records and confidential business documents — ranging from hotel management agreements to corporate ownership details and bank transfers. Ansari, in particular, has been vital to the deals, according to the Western intelligence assessment.Widely regarded as a powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Iran’s political system, with close ties to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Mojtaba Khamenei has largely avoided the public spotlight, even as his influence has grown and debate has intensified over who will replace his 86-year-old father as Iran’s next absolute leader.Questions around succession come at a time when Tehran appears strategically weaker than at almost any time since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assumed the top post in 1989, the consequence of its sanctions-hit economy, last year’s Israeli and US military strikes and the erosion of its regional proxies in the wake of the Gaza conflict. The story of the Khamenei overseas investment portfolio illustrates how Iran’s elite managed to move capital abroad despite the country being subject to one of history's toughest sanctions regimes for the last two decades over its nuclear program and support for armed groups that oppose Israel and Western policy in the Middle East. Those economic pressures have tightened since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025. But weaknesses in the global financial system, from lax beneficial ownership registries to limited sanctions enforcement, can allow clandestine networks to thrive, according to illicit finance experts. The US President added to the pressure on Iran on Wednesday threatening military strikes over its nuclear program..“Mojtaba has major stakes or de facto control in various entities throughout Iran and abroad,” says Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who has studied the Khamenei family’s financial empire. “When you analyze his financial network, Ali Ansari is the main account holder for him. This positions Ansari as one of the most influential oligarchs in the country today.”In a statement through his lawyer, Ansari said he “strongly denies that he has ever had any financial or personal relationship with Mojtaba Khamenei” and noted his intention to challenge the UK sanctions imposed on him. Khamenei didn't respond to requests for comment sent on Jan. 12 via the Iranian foreign ministry and the nation's embassies in the UAE and UK. .Read more:.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in US-Israel strikes as Donald Trump warns of expanding regional war.Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its counterpart in the UAE, the US Treasury Department and the European Union didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. The UK Foreign Office, the department that sanctioned Ansari, said it doesn't disclose information on individual cases.Mojtaba’s Money Man Ali Ansari, a 57-year old construction magnate, was last year described by British authorities as a “corrupt Iranian banker and businessman” as he was sanctioned for “financially supporting” the activities of Iran’s IRGC — a powerful branch of the military — which reports directly to the Supreme Leader and is itself sanctioned by the UK. Ansari is not subject to any sanctions in the EU or the US. From a working-class family northwest of Tehran, Ansari has risen to become the face of a sprawling domestic business network that includes the luxury Iran Mall complex, major wholesale markets and the recently dissolved private lender Ayandeh Bank, making him one of the most prominent private sector tycoons in the Islamic Republic.His family moved to the capital around the time of the 1979 revolution, a period when many were attracted by promises that the new Islamic leaders would redistribute the ousted Shah’s wealth, according to people with knowledge of the family's history. His father is said to have joined a reconstruction committee funded by the Supreme Leader’s office to refurbish religious sites. The work brought Ansari’s father into contact with senior clerics, including members of the Khamenei inner circle, the people said.In the late 1980s — toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War — the younger Ansari was drafted. Around this time, he first met Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father was then Iran’s president, according to the people. Ansari later secured lucrative state contracts and import licenses, moving swiftly into construction, shipping and petrochemicals — industries that served as conduits to move government funds offshore, according to some of the people. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ansari was best known as a rising industrialist in Tehran. He created TAT Bank in 2009, which later launched a plan to build Iran Mall, a luxury shopping center, owned by the bank. By 2013, a merger turned TAT into Ayandeh Bank, which collapsed in 2025 — engulfed in allegations around insider lending and mired in debt and controversy over its close political ties to officials. People familiar with the matter said the younger Khamenei was central to the bank's operations and the mall project. Ansari was the principal shareholder in Ayandeh..Ansari would meet privately with Khamenei at a house in Tehran’s upmarket Zafaraniyeh district, two of the people said, and on multiple occasions use the Ayandeh office to hold confidential talks. As Ansari’s domestic empire expanded, so too did his role as Mojtaba Khamenei’s financial conduit abroad establishing banking relationships across Europe and routing profits from oil exports through a labyrinth of companies in the UAE, according to some of the people. Much of the money in the network has flowed through non-Iranian firms like Ziba Leisure Ltd., registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Isle of Man-based Birch Ventures Ltd. and A&A Leisure Ltd. as well as Emirati entities such as Midas Oil Industries FZC and Midas Oil Trading DMCC.Officially the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company sells the country's crude, but sanctions have pushed much of the trade into opaque channels involving front companies, middlemen and informal traders, according to US officials and people familiar with the business. Elites connected to the Supreme Leader and the IRGC — such as the younger Khamenei — have been central to controlling some of these networks, the people said. In one example, a UAE-based intermediary firm was used for transfers via Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC to Ziba Leisure, according to SWIFT messages seen by Bloomberg. Documents show that Ziba Leisure was incorporated in 2014 with Ansari and Moris Mashali, an Iranian-born British national, as two of the directors. The transfer pre-dated the imposition of any sanctions against Khamenei and Ansari.ADIB said it operated under strict regulatory oversight and that the “mentioned entities” aren't clients.In 2016, Ansari obtained a Cypriot passport, allowing him to open new bank accounts and companies in Europe. It also helped mask his Iranian political ties, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials on the island later debated whether to revoke his citizenship amid scrutiny over his links to the IRGC and the younger Khamenei, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.The country’s Ministry of Interior declined to comment on whether Ansari's Cypriot passport had been revoked but said the case is under investigation.‘They Abuse Our System’Iran’s Supreme Leader heads one of the country’s wealthiest organizations which was created through the seizure of thousands of properties and assets after the revolution. Called the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, also known as SETAD, it manages billions of dollars worth of assets, commercial holdings and charities. It’s one of the largest state-owned conglomerates in the Middle East, operating in sectors ranging from insurance to energy and telecoms.His son’s overseas empire is more modest. Its purpose less clear. If it was intended as some kind of rainy day fund in case the family needed to leave Iran then the decision by UK authorities to sanction Ansari — and freeze those assets — has complicated the picture.Bloomberg has traced more than a dozen properties in London owned by the network. One, on The Bishops Avenue, is in Ansari’s name. Others are under the ownership of Birch Ventures, where UK Companies House records show Ansari as the one active beneficial owner. .“It’s increasingly clear that those close to Iran’s political leaders have invested heavily in the UK,” says Ben Cowdock, a senior investigations lead at Transparency International UK, which has tracked the British assets of Iran's political and business elites. “Our property market should not serve as a safe deposit box for cronies who finance repressive regimes.”Photographs taken at the funeral of Ansari’s father in June 2025 highlight the family’s continued close proximity to the Iranian leadership, with attendees including family of, and veteran advisers to, the Supreme Leader. But the failure of Ayandeh Bank renewed domestic public criticism of Ansari from some hardline politicians. Several bank failures in the past decade have been blamed on mismanagement by executives who've been prosecuted for illegally enriching themselves or lending massive sums.In October last year, a hardline member of parliament, Amir-Hossein Sabeti, urged the judiciary to force Ansari to foot the bill for Ayandeh's financial losses, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.The network also owns five-star hotels in Germany’s financial capital — attracting the attention of the Frankfurt authorities — and along Mallorca’s sun-soaked southwest coast in Spain. A penthouse in Toronto’s Four Seasons Private Residences was sold for C$10.5 million ($7.7 million), in 2020, according to property records, and a section of a building in the French capital Paris was offloaded in 2023. “The Iranian government is trying to establish a foothold,” in Germany’s financial system, says Nargess Eskandari-Grunberg, Frankfurt's deputy mayor who was born in Tehran and has been a vocal critic of the Islamic Republic’s leadership. “They abuse our system.”The Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch, on the city’s south side, boasts a spa, country club and two ballrooms. In a statement celebrating its re-branding under the Hilton banner in 2024, the US-based global hospitality chain highlighted the hotel’s history of hosting international stars and heads of state. .Financial records and the Hilton statement both identify Mashali as the managing director of Allsco Gravenbruch Hotelbetriebsgesellschaft mbH, which has owned the hotel since 2011. It signed a management agreement with Hilton for the property in 2024. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Four Seasons declined to comment.UK corporate filings show that Mashali, a solicitor, and Ansari both held roles at multiple firms, including Veritas Reales Investment Ltd. and A&A Leisure, which was dissolved in 2024.Documents seen by Bloomberg identify them as co-directors of Ziba Leisure, which was the sole shareholder of Allsco Gravenbruch Hotelbetriebsgesellschaft and the Frankfurt hotel. German and Luxembourg corporate records show that the ownership structure has changed at least twice in the past year but that Mashali remains a director of the controlling entity. Public records reviewed may not capture ownership changes completed in recent days.In a written statement to Bloomberg, Mashali said his link to Ansari “has always been as a regulated lawyer providing legal advice on various matters, and as a consultant working with law firms.” His lawyer subsequently denied Mashali had any connection to Khamenei or that, to his knowledge, he had any business dealings where Khamenei had an interest. Neither Khamenei nor Ansari responded to questions about any of the named entities.A European official involved in money-laundering investigations says that the UK asset freeze on Ansari might prompt a fire sale of the network’s European assets in case restrictions are imposed by the EU.Frankfurt’s deputy mayor wants the German government to do more: “This regime has no legitimacy whatsoever,” says Eskandari-Grunberg, speaking in the wake of the deadly protests. “The companies and associates of those in power must be sanctioned.” .© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

How Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei built a global property empire

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