Khamenei's son built secret overseas property empire: Report

From mega-mansions in London and an exclusive villa in Dubai to several luxury European hotels, the son of the Iranian Ayatollah has been quietly building a lucrative property empire while laundering billions of pounds into the West, a report claims. No assets appear directly in Mojtaba's name, but he has been actively involved in deals dating to at least 2011, according to Western intelligence assessments, insider accounts, real estate records, and confidential documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
The portfolio includes luxury London properties exceeding $138 million (one bought for $46.5 million in 2014), a villa in an elite Dubai district, and upscale hotels in Frankfurt and Mallorca. Funding, largely from Iranian oil sales, moved through British, Swiss, Liechtenstein, and UAE banks via shell companies such as Ziba Leisure Ltd., Birch Ventures Ltd., and Emirati entities, as tracked by the report. Iranian banker Ali Ansari, sanctioned by the UK in October, features as owner or director in many transactions. Ansari denies any connection to Mojtaba and plans to challenge the sanctions, the report said. The Financial Times reported that the assets include luxury properties across several European countries, ranging from a golf resort in Mallorca to a ski hotel in Austria.
The 56-year-old cleric, touted as a potential successor to his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oversees a sprawling investment empire, according to people familiar with the matter and the assessment of a leading Western intelligence agency. The people said that while the younger Khamenei refrains from putting assets in his own name, he has been directly involved in the deals, some of which stretch back at least as far as 2011. 
The story of the Khamenei overseas investment portfolio illustrates how Iran's elite managed to move capital abroad despite the country being subject to one of history's toughest sanctions regimes for the last two decades over its nuclear program and support for armed groups that oppose Israel and Western policy in the Middle East. Funds for the purchases were routed through banks in the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United Arab Emirates, with the money originating largely from Iranian oil sales. One London property alone was bought for €33.7 million in 2014, documents reviewed by Bloomberg show.