Inner Circle of Iran’s Supreme Leader Enriches Itself as Poverty Reaches Crisis Level

While millions of Iranians struggle to afford basic necessities amid soaring inflation and international sanctions, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei presides over a sprawling financial empire valued between $95 billion and $200 billion. The vast fortune, accumulated through a complex network of seized properties, front companies, and state-controlled foundations, makes Mr. Khamenei one of the wealthiest leaders on earth even as ordinary Iranians face what economists describe as their deepest economic crisis in modern history.The contrast is stark. As of late 2025, estimates suggest 30 percent to 36 percent of Iranians live below the poverty line, the equivalent of about $74 per person per month, with food inflation reaching 57.9 percent and wages stagnating while prices soar.Meanwhile, Mr. Khamenei’s wealth exceeds the estimated fortune of the late shah of Iran — which ranged from $2 billion to $35 billion in today’s dollars — whose opulent lifestyle helped fuel the 1979 Islamic Revolution.The Setad Empire: Seized Property as PowerAt the heart of Mr. Khamenei’s financial dominance sits an organization most Iranians barely know exists. The Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, known as Setad or EIKO, was established on April 26, 1989, ostensibly to manage properties abandoned after the revolution and distribute them to charity.Instead, it evolved into what the United States Treasury Department calls a “massive network of front companies hiding assets on behalf of Iran’s leadership.”“The Supreme Leader’s business empire centered around Setad was founded on seized assets and properties of Iranians, in particular religious minorities and political opponents,” the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, Behnam Ben Taleblu, tells the New York Sun. “This start tells you all you need to know.”Setad built its empire through the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians, including members of religious minorities, business owners, and expatriates. The organization claims through the Iranian courts, often falsely, that properties are abandoned. It now holds a court-ordered monopoly on seizing property in the Supreme Leader’s name.The holdings are staggering. Reuters calculated Setad’s assets at approximately $95 billion in 2013, comprising $52 billion in real estate and $43 billion in corporate holdings. The conglomerate has stakes in nearly every sector of Iranian industry: finance, oil, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and even ostrich farming. Most remarkably, these operations are tax-free and answer to no one except the ayatollah himself. The Iranian parliament has no oversight of Setad’s finances.“Setad (EIKO) provides Khamenei with an independent financial base that operates entirely outside Iran’s elected institutions,” the senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran and UC Foundation Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Saeid Golkar, tells the Sun. “Its revenues do not pass through the state budget, parliament, or the presidency, allowing the Supreme Leader to fund patronage networks, security organs, and loyal institutions without negotiating with elected officials.”What makes this model distinctive, Mr. Golkar explains, is “the fusion of clerical authority with a confiscatory holding structure.”“Unlike oligarchic systems that rely on private tycoons or formal state budgets, Setad functions as a religious–legal mechanism that converts ‘illicit’ or ‘abandoned’ property directly into the Supreme Leader’s political capital,” he explains. The scale of this economic control extends far beyond Setad alone.A senior fellow and the director of counterterrorism and intelligence at The Washington Institute, Matthew Levitt, tells the Sun that according to the U.S. Treasury, “together with Astan Quds Razavi and other Bonyads, and IRGC conglomerates like Khatam al Anbia, control of EIKO gives the Supreme Leader control of nearly half the Iranian economy.” Mr. Levitt adds that “much of EIKO’s wealth comes from assets expropriated from political dissidents and religious minorities.”Among the victims are Iran’s persecuted Baha’i religious minority. The Baha’i International Community reports that Setad has orchestrated a rising trend of confiscations targeting Baha’i properties, including homes, businesses, and century-old farms. Properties in Semnan Province, small, rural villages in the Mazandaran Province, and agricultural lands across Iran have been transferred to Setad through revolutionary court orders, often justified by claiming the owners lack proper documentation. “Systematic confiscation of property, especially from religious minorities, expatriates, and political opponents, has corrosive effects,” Mr. Golkar observes. “Domestically, it undermines property rights, discourages investment, and entrenches inefficiency by rewarding political loyalty over productivity.”Since the eruption of large-scale demonstrations in late December, the regime has also intensified property seizures against opposition figures. For instance, authorities confiscated the businesses, bank accounts, and properties of the owner of the Saedinia café chain, Mohammad Saedinia, after accusing him of supporting protests and strikes. His assets were frozen in Qom and his operations were shut down as part of a broader crackdown on alleged supporters of unrest. A Family Fortune Built on Oil and InfluenceAs ordinary Iranians face confiscation and poverty, the Supreme Leader’s inner circle has amassed extraordinary personal fortunes. While investigations have found no smoking gun proving that Mullah Khamenei directly enriches himself through Setad, the Supreme Leader’s second son and rumored successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, reportedly controls assets exceeding $3 billion. Most of this wealth sits in banks across the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Venezuela, and several African countries, according to investigative reports. He owns approximately $300 million in gold and diamonds and has claimed vast tracts of land near Mashhad.Mojtaba’s brother Masoud holds over $400 million in banks in France and the United Kingdom, with an additional $100 million in banks in Tehran. Masoud also controls the Renault franchise in Iran. The youngest son, Meysam, partners with Masoud in the Renault business. His wealth is estimated at over $200 million. Ayatollah Khamenei’s daughters, Boshra and Hoda, each have a fortune estimated at around $100 million.In July 2025, the United States Treasury sanctioned more than 50 individuals and entities connected to Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of a top advisor to the Supreme Leader. His network allegedly generated tens of billions of dollars through shipping Iranian and Russian oil, funneling capital into Ocean Leonid Investments, a hedge fund with offices in London, Geneva, and Dubai.“Iranian elite families typically move wealth offshore through layered corporate structures, trusted intermediaries, and informal financial networks,” Mr. Golkar says. “The most common hub is the UAE, especially Dubai, due to its proximity, strong Iranian diaspora networks, and relatively permissive business environment.”“Many elite families also have close relatives living in the West, and through these family ties, they channel investments into real estate and businesses in countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia,” adds Mr. Golkar.The sophisticated financial structures for moving wealth out of Iran are designed to evade international scrutiny. Assets are often parked in real estate, trading companies, or front businesses rather than in easily traceable bank accounts. “The rich get richer. That’s the story of Iran’s kleptocratic elite,” Mr. Taleblu notes. “Whether offshore accounts or skimming from the top and other illicit financial practices, everything from smuggling, to real estate, to sanctions busting offers this elite a privileged position in Iranian society and a lifestyle denied to the average Iranian.”Recent reports suggest some regime-connected families are preparing exit strategies in the event the government collapses. Israeli media reported that Ayatollah Khamenei’s son transferred $1.5 billion to Dubai, though the reports remain unconfirmed. Earlier speculation suggested the family might flee to Moscow, modeled on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s 2024 escape.The Cost to Ordinary IraniansThe disconnect between leadership wealth and population suffering has never been more pronounced. Recent Iranian parliamentary research shows that over half of Iranians consume fewer than 2,100 calories daily. Prices for staples have exploded: beans are up 250 percent, chicken is up over 50 percent, and Iranian rice has tripled in cost. The official poverty line stood at 6.1 million tomans per person per month in 2024, yet the minimum wage covers barely one-third of this amount. As state-run newspapers warn of a potential “Revolution of the Hungry Army,” Mr. Khamenei publicly projects an austere image. He lives in a modest residence in Tehran and regularly criticizes corruption and extravagance among officials. Yet through Setad and family networks, he maintains financial independence from parliament, the national budget, and Iran’s fractious political factions.“The widening gap between elite enrichment and mass poverty has become a major driver of popular resentment,” Mr. Golkar points out. “Although repression and patronage still contain unrest in the short term, deepening economic inequality erodes the regime’s moral legitimacy and lowers the threshold for protest.”This growing disparity, experts warn, is no accident but instead built into the system itself. Mr. Levitt notes that several institutions provide the revolutionary regime the means to fund regime priorities despite Iran’s financial mismanagement and economic crisis, including support for terrorist groups, fomenting regional instability, pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and suppressing the Iranian people.”“The wealth gap and lavish lifestyles of the kleptocratic elite in Iran today are a feature, not a bug, of the political economy of the Islamic Republic,” Mr. Taleblu concludes. “That’s why protests triggered by economic issues but sustained by larger political grievances have been the hardest for the regime to quell.”

Inner Circle of Iran’s Supreme Leader Enriches Itself as Poverty Reaches Crisis Level

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