A death row convict who plundered billions of dollars of the Iran’s national wealth is signing astronomical contracts from inside prison. This is the story of Babak Zanjani, one of the key figures in the mafia network controlled by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In an unprecedented move, the clerical regime’s Ministry of Roads has signed a 61 trillion toman contract with Avan Rail, a company belonging to Zanjani, for the development of railway lines. This contract, ostensibly for infrastructure, reveals the institutionalized corruption headed by Khamenei himself, with Zanjani being just one of his pawns in this vast network of looters.
Zanjani, who was sentenced to death on charges of oil corruption and money laundering, was saved from the gallows by a direct pardon from Khamenei, and his sentence was reduced to 20 years in prison. At the time, the Iranian Resistance declared that while impoverished people in various parts of Iran are executed on flimsy pretexts or have their fingers brutally amputated for stealing a few sheep, the regime’s judiciary announced that the death sentence for Babak Zanjani, one of the biggest government-affiliated thieves and embezzlers in Iran’s history, was overturned and converted to a 20-year prison term.
The reduction of the death sentence to imprisonment was also a mere façade. Zanjani signs massive contracts with the regime’s mafia-like institutions from inside prison. This railway contract, worth $713 million, not only signifies Zanjani’s return to the corruption scene but also screams that within the clerical regime, no corrupt individual can make such maneuvers without the backing of Khamenei’s office.
Zanjani has worked as an intermediary for the regime, facilitating oil smuggling, money laundering, and circumventing sanctions under various administrations. He received awards from former regime presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) and Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), and during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency (2005-2013), he was placed on the sanctions lists by the United States and the European Union for his role in bypassing sanctions.
In the current critical situation, where Khamenei is severely squeezed by sanctions and desperately needs foreign currency, he has once again turned to Zanjani to inject currency into the country under the guise of development contracts. However, this currency does not benefit the people; it flows directly into the coffers of Khamenei’s office and his affiliates. Zanjani, with his history of oil smuggling and money laundering, is a suitable pawn for this mission. Having previously embezzled €1.97 billion of the nation’s wealth, he is now plundering even more assets with Khamenei’s backing. This contract serves as a pretext for looting national capital while the Iranian people are mired in poverty.
Corruption within the mullahs’ regime is systemic and institutionalized. Zanjani is just one example of the levers used by Khamenei’s mafia, operating freely under orders from his office. When the regime’s judiciary auctions off Zanjani’s assets for pennies on the dollar or declares his massive debts settled, who else but Khamenei could be behind this charade? This episode once again demonstrates that the ruling thieves, directed by Khamenei, transfer Iran’s wealth into their own pockets and those of their affiliates. The 61 trillion toman contract with Zanjani is not for “developing railway lines” but for lining the pockets of Khamenei’s office and ensuring the survival of this corrupt regime.
The Iranian people know that the main thieves are Khamenei, his office, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who have seized control of all sectors of the country’s economy and plundered its wealth. Figures like Zanjani are merely pawns acting under his directives.
This astronomical plunder—acknowledged shamelessly and explicitly for decades by high-ranking regime clerics like Ahmad Jannati with phrases such as “unprecedented embezzlement in history”—began and took shape with the theft of the Iranian people’s greatest right, the right to sovereignty, and the massacre of PMOI members and dissidents who rose up to reclaim this very right.
The overthrow of the mullahs’ regime and the establishment of freedom and popular sovereignty is the only way to end this cycle of corruption and plunder.