NCRI- On Tuesday, the state-run Fars news agency published a “Detailed report of the activities of the wealth and power mafia.” The report exposed parts of astronomical plunders of Hashemi Rafsanjani, former president of mullahs’ regime, and his family that were named as “the wealth and power mafia.”
The following is the part eight and the final of the report published by Fars News Agency, June 9, 2009:
Business relations with a hated official
In the course of closing business deals, Mahmoud Hashemi (Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s brother) had extensive trades with a company manged by Colin Powell. This is while many European and other credible companies were also active in this field.
It should be mentioned that Colin Powell was a commander of the US navy warship Vincennes during the Iran-Iraq war.
On July 4, 1988, he ordered a missile attack against an Iran Air Airbus over the Persian Gulf. In this unprecedented and ruthless act, 290 of our countrymen, including innocent men, women and children were martyred.
After this vicious act, Powell received a medal of honor from the American president at the time.
Meetings with the chief Rabbi of the occupying regime in Jerusalem
Ms. Faezeh Hashemi headed an Iranian delegation to Bucharest to attend an international congress. On the sidelines of the congress, she met with “HaRav Meir Lau” (HaRav is the title of the chief rabbi of the Zionists).
The Zionist regime’s channel 2 TV confirmed the report and broadcast two pictures from this meeting, in which Ms. Faezeh Hashemi was cheerfully carrying on a warm conversation with HaRav Meir Lau.
Moreover, HaRav Meir Lau confirmed this report during an interview on the occasion of Yom Kippur (important Jewish holiday).
It is worth noting that despite the fact that the reports of the meeting were confirmed by Zionist sources, both parties refrained from talking about the content of the talks.
Scamming Arab sheikhs
As was pointed out in previous reports, Mehdi Hashemi (Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son) has extensive relations with Arab sheikhs. During a deal with one of the sheikhs, Hassan Anani, Mehdi Hashemi did not act in accordance with the agreements, thus engaging in a multi-million fraud after receiving $3,000,000 from Anani (despite giving a promissory note to him).
Following this incident, Anani sued Hashemi. But, he passed up on the opportunity to pursue the case, fearing for the safety of his investments in Iran after Mehdi Hashemi confronted him with threats.
It is worth noting that Hassan Anani was one of the largest shareholders of the Noushab company in Iran during the time he was doing business with Mehdi Hashemi.
He said: I want to vote for the Executives of Kargozaran Party (i.e. the power grabbers and wealth and power mafia).
I asked: Why?!
He responded: They have embezzled so much that they are too content now and so they may not even take government and public funds.
I laughed and said: Incidentally, the reverse is true. Haven’t you heard the old adage, “Take from the hungry and give to the fat”? These individuals are hungrier than everybody else.
The power and wealth mafia and lack of transparency
Operating in the shadows, secret deals, acquiring illegitimate and illegal income, on the one hand, and deceitful propaganda to obtain or maintain power, on the other, have transformed mafia groups into the most opaque movements in contemporary societies.
On this basis, mafia groups engage in clandestine diplomacy and opaque deal makings, and when it comes time to grab power, they bring their lack of accountability and lack of transparency into the political fold.
The conduct of the wealth and power mafia in Iran should naturally be analyzed in the abovementioned context. These high-flying individuals were in charge for 8 years during the so-called construction period without being held accountable. They forced the nation of Iran into debt from foreign banks, left projects incomplete and created a painful gap between the rich and the poor. In addition, during the reformist government, they were placed into the central arrangements, and while upsetting the structure’s balance, they reduced Seyyed Mohammad Khatami government’s accountability to incredibly low levels.
There are speculations about the reasons for the lack of accountability and transparency of the mafia, one of which can be mentioned here.
The power-thirsty individuals work in rooms with opaque windows and try to prevent people (as judges and observers) from becoming aware of their secret and complex relationships. This is because transparency would destroy the popular acceptability of the mafia and would cut their hands from the seat of power.
In this regard, in a proposal (which points to the lack of transparency of these high-flying individuals), Mr. Atrianfar has said to one of Mr. Hashemi’s staff, that: Bring together a strong journalistic team made up of people like Shamsolvaezin, Ghouchani, Saeed Leylaz, Mahmoud Sadri, and others, so that they can form beautiful and vague expressions for Mr. Hashemi’s TV spot. In that program, he must not talk about the things we have done. He should just mention in general that we led a construction period for 8 years and now we want to work out the current challenges.
In 1990, Moussavi explained about the conduct of the Executives of Construction Party in an analysis by referring to them as “power-thirsty.”
Hashemi family’s pledge to resolve famous high-rise developer’s legal issues
Recently, Mr. Jalil Makinehchi, one of the famous high-rise developers and entrepreneurs, who has transferred his wealth from Iran to Dubai, dedicated an expensive seven-story building (with blue-tainted glass exterior) located on the Nejat Elahi Street to the election team of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani.
It is worth mentioning that Mr. Jalil Makinehchi received a permit from the Tehran municipality (when Mr. Karbaschi was mayor) to develop high-rises and destroyed a lot of gardens in violation of legal codes.
It has also been reported that the said individual has a large legal case at the Judiciary for a number of legal infringements. An individual by the name of Judge Movahed is presiding over the case.
On this basis, Mr. Rafsanjani’s family has promised Makinehchi to follow up and resolve his legal dilemmas in exchange for the latter’s financial support for Mr. Hashemi’s election campaign for future elections and victory.
It is worth noting that currently Mr. Tah Hashemi and a number of other power-thirsty people (members of the Executives of Construction Party) are based, and conduct activities, in this building as part of the “office of provincial affairs of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani.”
Using public funds at Mr. Hashemi’s campaign headquarters
According to one source close to the campaign headquarters of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mr. Hosseini (one of the officials responsible for administering the finances of the presidency, who has budgets outside the confines of laws relating to public accounting) has been appointed as the person in charge of finance and support for Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s headquarters.
It is worth noting that the budgets outside the confines of this appointment point to the misappropriation of the presidency’s resources, equipment, and budget for the benefit of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s campaign headquarters.
Moreover, as a continuation of the wealth and power mafia’s misappropriation of public resources during elections, one can point to the presence of ten female staff of the Expediency Council working at Mr. Hashemi’s campaign headquarters.
The maritime fleet of the wealth and power mafia
As mentioned previously, Mr. Hashemi’s family on the one hand enjoys extensive influence in the country’s ports and customs, while on the other hand, it has also acquired some private enterprises in the maritime industry. This has led to the friends and families of these people to expand their reach in order to form a naval fleet and get involved in building ships.
Obviously, one of the advantages of controlling ship building and forming a maritime fleet is that it makes smuggling more effortless. We can also consider the following points which are worth noting:
… shares in the “Farasahel” company belongs to Mr. Mehdi Hashemi (Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son). The company originally operated as the builder of naval commodities and structures, beginning its work in the southwestern naval industries of Bandar Abbas. But, after a while, in view of Mehdi Hashemi’s extensive influence in the Oil Ministry (as former head of the naval facilities of the Oil Ministry and current head of the organization in charge of fuel efficiency), its operations turned into the smuggling of diesel fuel under the guise of exporting diesel oil, stone, sand, and gravel.
One of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s sons owns two units of the platform affiliated with the Sadra company. The first is beside the marine facilities of Bushehr while the second one is located in Asalouyeh, South Pars.
Mr. Hashemian (Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s nephew) owns Ferdos 1, 2, 3 of the Ferdos fleet, which owns 10 ships.
Even though the Ferdos fleet operates under the name of Sayyadi, Hashemian uses these three ships, along with the Ferdos ship, to smuggle commodities. Participating in the Sayyadi operation is considered to be a cover for this.
Dr. Fatehian, who is one of the close associates of Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s family, owns three ships called Hani, Kasra, and Setareh Jonoub.
The Kavian 2 ship belongs to a person identified as Sarrafzadeh, who is connected with and closed to Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s family.
Handing out of satellite phones by Mr. Hashemi’s campaign headquarters
Recently, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani’s campaign headquarters (which incorporates his family and members of the Executives of Construction Party), distributed 1,000 satellite phone lines operating outside the data network of the country to its campaign staff throughout Iran.
In view of the high cost of satellite phone use ($0.55/minute) and the price of its line and device (about $1,100), this question comes into mind that (aside from the source of the money) what objectives is the mafia really pursuing?
Story 1: The Executives of Kargozaran Party election campaign headquarters cancelled campaign travels due to lack of financial resources.
Story 2: The Kargozaran Party campaign headquarters paid $30,000,000 as operational capital to its provincial offices (aside from costs of setting up offices and ad campaigns).
Story 3: The Kargozaran Party campaign headquarters paid $15,000 for a single poster of their candidate.
Mr. Hashemi's clan wealth over precious horses
Horse riding is one of the sports favored most by Rafsanjani clan, and has brought much squandering of wealth.
All members of the Rafsanjani clan have in possession expensive horses.
Yasser Rafsanjain has for example bought a very expensive horse at 3,200,000,000 Rials, now worth 5000,000,000 Rials.
Faezeh Rafsanjani also has a horse worth 2,500,000,0000 Rials.
Faezeh Rafsanjani and Karbaschi along with a couple of other officials initiated a horse riding club in Lavasan with numerous high breed horses. The locals in the area have in many occasions expressed dissatisfaction over the activities of the club and compared Faezeh Rafsanjani's luxury life with that of the former Farah and Ashraf Pahalavi (Spouse and sister of the former Shah).
Daily expenses for feeding and caring for the horses reach 10,000,000 Rials. For example the daily diet of the horses which contains fresh water melons reaches a high amount of 100,000 Tomans.
Receiving loans from the Presidential office
In 1996 Yasser Rafsanjani – head of the Horse riding Federation and advisor to Mr.Forouzesh in the Ministry of Jihad for Reconstruction- used his brother's influence in as the presidents head of office-Mohsen Rafsanjani, and managed to obtain a loan of 1,5000,000,000 Rials without going though legal procedures, from the savings interests of Jihad Ministry.
He also received a loan of 400,000 dollars on 75/5/21 (Aughust 11, 1996) (from the Ministry of Jihad for Reconstruction – still though illegal means. It is said that the sum was to cover the costs of importing horses from Russia. Later research proved that the import never occurred.
Usurping land through bullying
Some time ago, Yasser Rafsanjani tried to take over a ranch named "Sarin Darkia " in Fasham district -4,000,000 square meter.
This ranch belonged to a rancher who owned cattle (1500 sheep) with his brother, and who was very much against handing his land to Rafsanajani. In this regard, Yasser Rafsanajani while threatened this person had said: "Give up this ranch since I am resolved to get this from the government".
Sharing imports and exports with Aunty
Mrs. Faezeh Rafsanjani along with her aunty – Mrs. Bahremani- who is 70 years old bought a land 30,000,000 (equal to 3000 hectares) in FirousKooh plane to construct a horse riding club. The price of the land was 45,000,000,000 Rials.
We have to remind our readers that Mrs. Bahremani's main interest lies with petrol exports. She is a main partner to Faeze Rafsanajani.
Organization of EMDAD Tourism under Rafsanjani clan
Yasser Rafsanjani ( Rafsanjani's son) established an organization called " Emdad Jahangardi". This organization's mandate was to provide with on-road repairs as a partner to "Iran Khordo" company (A car manufacture company).
This new organization was to receive 40,000 Rials for each product of "Iran Khodro" company for its services to the company. This amount is of course apart from the projected amount due to services provided on the road.
In view of the high manufacturing rate of Iran Khodro Company – production line reaches 400 thousand cars- annual interest of this company for providing services would reach a charming figure of 400,000 (annual production rate of Iran Khodro) times 40,000 (amount received for each production ) would equal to……….
Building a Lake
Yasser Hashemi initiated a business for repair and reconstruction on the lake in Boushehr at high cost of 30,000,000,000 Rials.
It is worth noting that near the aforementioned lake there are two other repair companies at work at the moment, belonging to the Navy.
In order to prevent collision of interest, the Navy had proposed Yasser Rafsanjani, hiring the companies, which was not accepted.
Running a separate lake for repair would constitute a parallel work supervising services to ships that carry smuggled goods.
