Khamenei-Run Foundation Will Receive Windfall From Nuclear Deal

A foundation run by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stands to be a major beneficiary of lifted sanctions as part of the nuclear deal with Iran, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The deal “allows the Ayatollah’s shady conglomerate to jeopardize the global financial system,” Sen. Cory Gardner (R – Colo.) told Reuters. “These are bad actors who are now receiving the benefit of the bargain from the United States.”

Reuters said that Khamenei maintains “exclusive control” over Setad and its subsidiary organizations. Ghadir Investment Company, which the U.S. Treasury identified as a Setad-linked firm, signed a $565 million deal last month with the Italian defense giant Finmeccanica.

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The Reuters report is consistent with an analysis done in May by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies showing that Khamenei would personally stand to benefit from the lifting of sanctions on his foundations. The study noted that Iran’s elite extraterritorial militia, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also stood to accrue significant benefits from the lifting of sanctions. Reuters also reported that month that the IRGC would be a major economic beneficiary of sanctions relief.

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