TIMES OF ISRAEL
by Staff
September 16, 2015

Setad, with $95 billion estimated worth under direct control of Tehran’s supreme leader, soon to be free of US sanctions

One of the main beneficiaries of the easing of sanctions on Iran in the framework of the nuclear deal reached with world powers in July will be Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to a Reuters investigation, sanctions relief includes the lifting of restrictions on one of the most secretive and wealthy organizations in the Islamic Republic, the “Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam,” also called Setad or EIKO. Founded in 1989, the network’s assets were estimated in 2013 at some $95 billion and are controlled exclusively by Khamenei himself. The nuclear accord lifts secondary sanctions — that is, sanctions on non-US companies that do business with the Iranian conglomerate — on Setad itself and some 40 companies it owns in whole or part, the news agency reports. READ MORE