00:00Ayatollah Mujtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran, has amassed a secret fortune
00:05through a global investment portfolio, despite Western sanctions.
00:10The 56-year-old cleric succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the
00:15opening salvos of US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February the 28th.
00:19And both at home and abroad, the younger Khamenei has stayed out of the spotlight.
00:24But a year-long Bloomberg investigation has found that he's overseen a wealth of investment
00:28deals, some stretching back to 2011, hidden by layers of shell companies.
00:33That includes prime real estate in some of London's most desirable neighbourhoods, worth
00:37in excess of $138 million.
00:41It also includes a villa in an area dubbed the Beverly Hills of Dubai, and upscale hotels
00:47in cities stretching from Germany's financial capital Frankfurt through to Mallorca.
00:52People familiar with those deals say that the funds are coming from Iranian oil sales.
00:56Khamenei, who was sanctioned by the US in 2019, isn't directly named in the documents.
01:02Instead, many appear under the name of the Iranian businessman Ali Ansari, a man sanctioned
01:07by the UK in October and who is closely linked to the regime's upper echelots.
01:13Ansari strongly denied having a personal or a professional relationship with a new supreme
01:17leader, according to a statement put out through his lawyer in January.
01:20He's also suggested he will challenge the UK measures.
01:23And Mojtaba Khamenei has never responded to Bloomberg requests for comments about his
01:28property business.
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