Iran's new Ayatollah, Mojtaba Khamenei, owns properties worth Rs 2,500 crore in London alone: Report
Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has built an extensive portfolio of properties across the world, including at least 13 in London alone that are worth Rs 25 billion, or Rs 2.500 crore. Two of them are in Kensington and are deemed a security risk.
Mojtaba Khamenei named new Supreme Leader of Iran
Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been named to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as the new Ayatollah, or Supreme Leader of Iran, owns two luxury properties in London worth £50million. Reports by Bloomberg and Daily Mail show that the apartments are located in Kensington, west London, overlooking the Israeli embassy. Experts have flagged it as a "serious security breach".
Mojtaba Khamenei owns apartments near Kensington Palace
Mojtaba owns the sixth and seventh floor apartments with servants' quarters on the ground floor. This property is a stone's throw from Kensington Palace, where the Prince and Princess of Wales reside. The 56-year-old is reported to have owned these apartments since 2014; however, its official ownership was revealed after an investigation by Bloomberg.
Mojtaba Khamenei owns properties worth £200million in London
These are not the only properties Mojtaba Khamenei owns in London. The probe by the outlet shows that he has 11 mansions in Hampstead, North London. He gained acquisition of these properties through a front man called Ali Ansari, and a shell company registered in the Isle of Man. The Bloomberg report further suggests that he has built a portfolio of properties around the world. Together, all his London properties are worth an estimated £200million.
He used money from Iran's 'sanction-busting' oil programme
The report states that the money used to purchase them came from Iran's oil programme that aims to bust the sanctions. Iran has a shadow network of ageing tankers that use "spoofing" and "flag-hopping" to evade radars. The oil is often rebranded as "Middle Eastern" or "Malaysian" in the waters off Malaysia and the Riau Archipelago.
Mojtaba Khamenei's Kensington flats a major security risk
Experts have raised suspicion that the flats in Kensington could have been used for spying on the embassy. Daily Mail quoted a terrorism and security specialist as saying that the flats are less than 50 metres behind the Israeli embassy building, and could have acted as a place to monitor and photograph staff and visitors.
Kensington flats could have spied on Israeli embassy in London
They are so close that people at the Kensington flats owned by Mojtaba could have heard embassy personnel talking outdoors. They could have also carried out "laser-assisted monitoring of window vibrations to extract speech from the inside". The embassy's wireless networks could also have been hacked to monitor internet traffic.
IRGC pledge allegiance to new Ayatollah
Iran's Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader on Sunday. It said in a statement that "Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran." The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has pledged allegiance, and "complete obedience and self-sacrifice" to him.
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