The following is the part seven of the report published by Fars News Agency, June 9, 2009:
Seizure of power by misappropriation of public properties
Following repeated misuses of public properties by the Kargozaran Party and Mr.Hashemi's clan in order to acquire power , Mr.Mehdi Hashemi ( son of Mr.Hashemi Rafsanjani) using his own influential power, on 3/3/84 (May, 25, 2005) submits a request of 15000 piles of highest quality papers to the ministry of commerce.
A meticulous calculation of the above order which is just one example of such cases would signify some 67/5 million of sheets. That would basically mean that the Mafia of power and wealth would use at least one sheet per each Iranian for their electoral campaign!
Therefore, we must expect extreme extravagance propaganda by their Excellencies of the Kargozaran Party. That is at the time when books in the recent years have been very expensive. The low level of purchase of books from the book exhibition by the students and educated people of the society cites as an example of this situation.
Further efforts of the Mafia of power and wealth to obtain power
According to some source near to Mr.Hashemi;s family, since one year ago, this family has been active in electoral propaganda to make grounds for Mr hashemi to launch his presidential campaign. In this respect, they have made contacts with influential authorities in different ministries and governmental organizations to ensure them of their posts being reinstated. These meetings have usually been taking place in Esteghlal hotel.
This person also states that even thought the party headquarter provided all banners and bill boards for this elections, the Hashemis in each province have spent 10/000/000/000 Rials on transport, boarding and other expenditures which amounts to 300/000/000/000 Rials.
Abuse of governmental facilities in the new range of efforts to grab the power
The clan of Mr.Hashemi in their renewed efforts to over take the executive power uses its utmost influence in governmental institutions.
Some examples in this regard are as follows:
1) Taking over a seven story building that is located in Niyavaran Ave, besides foreign affaires ministry hotel for elections purposes. This has been taken place by coordination with Mr.Jasebi to exert influence over the Open University.
2) Taking control of a building situated in Abbas abad Avenue ( Mahnaz Square) belonging to the Ministry of sciences and technology,
3) Holding a building located in Jahan koodak square which is owned by Oil Ministry,
4) Making use of building, sites and facilities of the regime's Expediency Council for Mr.Hashemi's elections affaires.
5) Using the site and facilities of the regime's Centre for strategic studies (affiliates to the regime's Expediency Council) for the same purposes,
Foreign investments of the Mafia of power and wealth
The Mafia movements across the world by indulging to illegal and illicit activities such as bribery, economic collusion, money laundering, smuggling…can gather lucrative income and immense amount of capital.
They never show any interest in any investments in their own countries. They usually transfer their capita to a third country and make their investments abroad.
The Mafia in Iran too is not an exemption and pursues the same rule. Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, they too are reluctant to make any domestic investments. Understanding the crux of the matter of this phenomenon is of vital importance.
In the first place, it seems that this might be for some immunity objectives and preventive measures against confiscation of their capital. But in a deeper analysis of the matter, some other aspects will be revealed.
One of the major permanent worries of Mafia groups is the enlightenment of the public awareness with regard to their deeds and acts. The domestic investments by such groups can on the one hand expose the extent of their wide scope of economic activities and on the other hand may instigate public minds to raise doubts and demand explanations and justifications concerning the means and the ways of making such incredible investments.
Revealing the scope and bulk of such illegal activities and the origin of these illegitimate investments can result to public outrage which in turn can obviously prevent them from winning power, especially in elections fields.
Establishment of a tourism centre for foreign VIPs
After having purchased a plot of land of 100,000 square meters along side the forest in the north of Toronto', Hashemi's family has established a huge and beautiful tourism and amusement centre very well equipped with all kinds of recreation facilities even a helicopter band which is quite unique in the world. 49 percent of this park belongs to this family and the rest to Canadian tourism commission. This centre is obviously meant for highly influential authorities and very rich tourists.
Hashemi clan's Highway in Canada
Some other investments of Mr. Hashemi and his family in foreign countries are construction projects, like bridges, highways etc…. These contracts are usually drawn with the help of one of the powerful firms of those foreign countries.
One of these highly profitable projects is a 150 Km highway in Toronto. This highway enjoys a very suitable situation with various entrances and exits to all parts of the city and is known by the local people as Hashemi highway!
According to some reliable sources, Bank SBS has helped Hashemi's clan to build this highway. The tolls are a huge bulk of income derived from this highway for this family. It is ironic that according to Iranian official sources, there are more than 1000 hazardous points in roads network in Iran.
Construction of luxurious villas abroad
Members of Hashemi family have bought lots of large plots of lands besides forests in some very beautiful vicinity in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. They have constructed several modern and fashionable large villas of 10 to 20 thousand sqm furnished with the most advanced facilities and equipments. These luxurious villas costs millions of dollars and are amongst the most beautiful ones in Canada.
Founding of oil company and construction of villas in the UK
According to above said information, Mehdi and Mohsen Hashemi (Mr.Hashemi Rafsanjani's sons) own an oil equipments company in the UK. Considering the previous positions of Mehdi Hashemi in the Oil Ministry and his influence on this ministry, his company enjoys one of the highest and most important statuses in oil tenders in Iran and Middle East.
The general manager of this company is named Mohsen Safaeian (residing in the USA) who for 10 years has been working as translator for this family in their foreign trips .He has managed to build many luxurious villas in the best locations in the UK for this family.
How has this Mafia become so rich?
Although the aforementioned cases are just the tip of ice burg of incredible extent of foreign investments of this Mafia, but they raise a simple question over the source and origin of financing these enormous investments abroad.
At the end of this article, some minor instances of sources of such credits are presented:
– Abuse of power by Mehdi Hashemi in order to import foreign made buses with special import levy concessions.
– Abuse of power by the same person in economic and political institutions in order to obtain information on the stock market, something which is described as informative rent in Iran.
– receiving high percentage commissions from the $10/000/000/000 agreements to purchase airbus planes,
– Obtaining $150/000/000 commission from $1/000/000/000 oil contract with Swiss Zuig company
– Collecting a lucrative lump sum commission from Italian company BNTI in the course of reaching agreement for executing $3/000/000/000 projects in Mobarekeh steel , chador melo and Khuzestan.
Mehdi Hashemi uses his strings and pulling in Oil Ministry to achieve the tenders and bids in very big contracts of Oil ministry with the Engineering Company to build Iran's marine sites ( owned by Hashemi clan),
Yaser Hashemi another son of Hashemi too, has collected huge commission from the director of Orland French company to buy tactical Jeep for Iran, Something that has been confessed by the French director as well.
Receiving $1,000,000 commission by Mehdi Hashemi in order to export buses to Libya,
Collecting $150,000,000 commission by Mahmoud Hashemi in the course of making contract with Iran Metro Company and Norinko Comp,
– Mostafa Davarizadeh a close relatives of Mr. Hashemi acquires some $1,500,000 as commission for the purchase of electronic and land items from Bob Green company,
In another case Mostafa Davoudzadeh received 600/000 German marks for repairing Polish tanks.
Secret dealings of wealth and power mafias
Operating in secret and working in shadows are among the significant and unique characteristics of mafia groups. This factor has a direct link to their survival, transforming these groups into highly complicated and frightening networks.
Despite this fact, however, the unavoidable comings and goings of mafia figures can be one of the most important areas for investigating and gaining knowledge about these notorious groups.
In general, and for various reasons, mafia groups have no choice but to travel to different countries. Among these reasons are:
– Establishing relations and coordinating with foreign mafia networks
– Acquiring illegitimate and illegal income
– Investing outside their home country
– Recreation and leisure
The travels of the wealth and power mafia in Iran is not an exception to this rule. It can be analyzed within the confines of the aforementioned general features.
In this issue, the wealth and power mafia will be examined and analyzed with respect to foreign travels and secret relations so that other aspects of these high-flying individuals’ dark houses can be exposed. Our hope is to contribute to the enlightening of public opinion.
Mr. Hashemi’s family breaks record in foreign travel
According to one source close to Mr. Hashemi’s family, in the past several years, ten members of this family (including sons and daughters, wife, and brothers of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani) have traveled abroad on 750 separate occasions in total. Among these instances, the repeated trips of Mehdi Hashemi (close to 260 times) and Fatemeh Hashemi (about 200 times) must be looked at more closely than the others.
Evidence and experience indicate that during these recurrent trips, suspicious meetings have taken place with officials of the Pahlavi regime, people affiliated with the mafia abroad, and even elements tied to spy agencies. Some of these are alluded to below:
– Secret dealings of Mehdi Hashemi with Changiz Farnezhad, former chief of the anti-spying office of SAVAK;
– Secret relations of Mehdi Hashemi with Nakhoda Kamal Darvish, who cooperates with the British MI6 intelligence service;
– Mehdi Hashemi’s secret talks with an American diplomat on a plane during a trip to Saudi Arabia (which was pre-planned);
– Mehdi Hashemi’s negotiations with about 200 Arab entrepreneurs in Dubai;
– Secret relations of Mr. Hashemi’s family with foreign news agencies and publications for the purpose of spreading extensive propaganda in support of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani;
– Setting up a post office box in London to receive secret letters.
On this basis, if we calculate the cost of 2-way tickets alone for every trip to be (at least) $3,000, the total cost of tickets for these trips would amount to roughly $225,000. Considering the long duration of these trips and the enormous travel fees involved, the total costs would certainly be much higher.
Traveling abroad for medical check up
On October 6, 2004, Mohammad Hashemi traveled to Switzerland along with his wife and father-in-law for a medical check up. After spending 11 days there, he returned to Tehran on October 17, 2004.
It has been reported that the said individuals intended to go to Switzerland through Germany, but because of a number of issues (!?), they had a stop over at Dubai instead. For the route change, they incurred an extra cost of $2,000.