Ali Ansari, an Iranian tycoon accused of financing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), owns a golf club in Mallorca and hotels in Frankfurt through offshore companies.
According to corporate registration documents reviewed by the Financial Times, a British newspaper, Ali Ansari—whose family founded the now-bankrupt “Ayandeh” Bank in Iran—controls a collection of luxury properties, ranging from a golf resort on the Spanish island of Mallorca to a ski hotel in Austria.
Britain, following the collapse of Ayandeh Bank in October, sanctioned Ansari for financing “hostile activities” by the IRGC, labeled him an “Iranian corrupt banker and businessman,” and froze his London property assets worth more than 150 million pounds.
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The Financial Times has now identified a complex network of offshore companies stretching from Luxembourg and Saint Kitts and Nevis to Austria, Germany, and Spain, through which Ansari has amassed a vast and previously unreported portfolio of properties across Europe.
Based on this, the total known value of Ansari’s property empire in Britain and Europe is estimated at around 400 million euros, a figure calculated from prices recorded in land registries and valuations listed in company accounts.
Ansari, who according to Britain’s sanctions list holds passports from Iran, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Cyprus, is not currently sanctioned by the European Union. However, these properties illustrate how businessmen close to Iran’s regime have been able to obtain lucrative assets in the West, despite extensive efforts to exclude them from Western economies.
Ansari owns two hotels in Frankfurt and a shopping center in Oberhausen, Germany.
The collapse of Ayandeh Bank late last year intensified the economic crisis, which ultimately led to protests in Iran this month—protests that reportedly left thousands dead and are considered the most severe violence since the 1979 revolution.
According to European officials, the European Union is considering new sanctions against Iran ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers at the end of the month.
Offshore company documents show that Ansari, through several Spanish and German holding companies, owns the Golf de Andratx and Camp de Mar complex, a 164-room luxury hotel in Mallorca that provides access to one of the Mediterranean’s most challenging golf courses. The complex is valued at 22 million euros.
He also holds a stake in a luxury ski resort in the Austrian Alps called Schloss Hotel Kitzbühel.
Ansari also owns two hotels in Germany: the Hilton Frankfurt City Centre and the Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch.
Each of these hotels is held through Dutch and German holding companies and is valued at around 80 million euros.
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He also owns, through shell companies, the Bero Oberhausen shopping center in northwestern Germany, which has been valued at 68 million euros.
The recent protests in Iran began last month after a sharp collapse in the value of the national currency and a soaring surge in inflation and then evolved into broader protests against Iran’s regime.
Many protesters have directed their anger at what they call structural corruption, which they say has allowed individuals close to the government to continue enriching themselves despite the sharp decline in people’s living standards.
Ayandeh Bank, which was merged into a state-owned bank to protect depositors, had for years been accused by politicians and analysts of channeling financial resources into speculative activities and to individuals linked to Iran’s regime.
