Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, August 27, 2020—Locals in the town of Kianshahr near Ahvaz, southwest Iran, clashed with the regime’s security forces that intended to demolish their homes on Wednesday, August 26. People showed resistance to the security forces who intended to pave the path for heavy machinery brought into the area by the local municipality authorities.
The mullahs’ oppressive security forces used pellet guns and fired tear gas against the protesting locals, leaving several injured and in need of medical attention. Various units of the security forces even attacked the village of Abolfazl located near Ahvaz, injured a number of the people and arrested dozens, according to sources.
The regime’s Mostazafan Foundation claims to own the land of this village and has ordered all the residents, who have lived in this area for decades, to evacuate their properties.
Thirty years ago, following the end of the Iran-Iraq War, the real estate of Abolfazl village lacked any value and considered inadequate for farming. Little by little as the city of Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province expanded, the real estate value of these areas began to literally skyrocket.
As a result, the regime’s Mostazafan Foundation, with a long and corrupt history of plundering ordinary people’s properties, began claiming ownership over these areas and is now ordering all the villagers to evacuate their homes. To this day any of the locals protesting this act of utter cruelty have been arrested and thrown behind bars.
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While over two thirds of Iran’s population live in poverty, ten financial institutions affiliated with the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei enjoy enormous privileges. The following regime-linked institutions are constantly offered exemptions from taxes:
- The Mostazafan Foundation (The Foundation of the Poor)
- Setade Ejrae Farman-e Emam (Headquarters of Implementing the Orders of Imam)
- Shahid Foundation (Martyr Foundation)
- Emdad Committee (Relief Committee)
- Sazmane Tablighat Eslami (The Islamic Publicity Organization)
- The Office of Publicity of Qom
- Bonyade Maskan (Housing Foundation)
- Center for Seminary Services
- The Mostafa AlAlamiyeh Cultural and Social Research Institution
Out of the ten abovementioned institutions, which are closely affiliated with Khamenei’s office, seven received a 70-billion-rial budget (approx. $470 million) from the government back in 2018.
In recent years, the issue of Khamenei-affiliated institutions’ unpaid taxes has incited many protests. Some of these institutions, including the Bonyad-e Mostazafan and the Astan Quds Foundation, have issued hollow statements saying they will pay taxes on their gains. However, critics say that producers will eventually take these taxes from their customers, therefore making it different from the income taxes that all other people and organizations pay.
Khamenei’s economic empire
In the past few years, Khamenei has been using his special privileges to create a massive economic empire for himself. The profiles and outfits that he controls are beyond any form of regulation and government oversight.
Consider just one of the institutions that Khamenei controls: The Bonyad-e Mostazafan.
Founded shortly after the 1979 revolution, Bonyad-e Mostazafan took control of assets owned by the Shah’s family and his regime’s affiliates. It became the owner of thousands of houses, housing complexes, villas, agricultural lands, gardens, mansions, factories, commercial outfits, and bank accounts. The full extent of the value of its assets and income has never been disclosed.
During the era of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, and after Khamenei took the helm to this day, all information about the Bonyad-e Mostazafan was kept undisclosed under the pretext of being part of the “secrets of beit-e rahbar” (the leader’s house). No one knows about its expenses and income.
Some of the subsets of Bonyad-e Mostazafan include the following:
- Bonyade Alavi
- Sina Insurance
- The Organization of Agriculture and Livestock
- Persepolis Aviation and Tourism Company
- Zamzam Company
- Iran Meat Company
- Pak Dairy Company
These are just a few of the subsets of the Bonyad, all of which are large companies. They operate under the radar, filling the pockets of the Iranian regime’s highest officials and funding its illicit activities while the lives of the Iranian people continue to plunge even deeper into poverty and misery.
Another one of Khamenei’s personal funds, the “Executive Order of Imam Khomeini,” aka EIKO or SETAD, was discovered to have billions of dollars’ worth of assets. In 2010, an in-depth report by Reuters evaluated the SETAD’s assets at around $95 billion.
