INFLUENCE

Bank list

anyone ever see this '79 Bank withdrawl list?

Kayhan had a photo of it in the 1970s; I saw the paper in the NY Public Library archives once....cant believe a scan is not on the net?

Bidding and acquisition process

Babak,

The irony in your paragraph starting with: "So let me enlighten you…." is quite amusing. Seriously, I can not tell if you are trying to describe a corrupt bidding process, or humoring us with your description of the bidding process in US corporations and government agencies!

What you describe in that paragraph, along with some twists, is more or less, the process description of corporate and government acquisitions and supply chain. Not only there is nothing illegal about it, they are practiced policies in just about everywhere.

For example, to have weeks and months of "behind closed door" meetings with prospective suppliers/partners before issuing the RFPs is normal (called pre-solicitation). In many cases the choice is obvious before the final review process. In most cases you welcome personal contacts and make suggestions and recommendations on proposal writing. You got to know if the company has the capabilities they claim and if you can get along with their executives "due diligence"!?! You pick the ones that best suit your needs and ask them to highlight their specific capabilities that you need in their proposal. Narrow down the numbers to a small group and decide which is the best for the job, often with very narrow margins.

Common sense! The only thing corrupt about it is your arbitrary use of the term, and like anything else, if you choose to corrupt it, there are plenty of chances.

You take established and accepted guidelines, trivialize them, and then mock the process. Which brings me to my point, this attitude was the basis of the "corruption" epidemic in the late 70's. Arbitrary accusations, personal opinions and total ignorance of the laws that accused any sign of wealth to be a corrupt entity, or person. Always need "due diligence" :-)

Now the other point about corruption and cultural issue. I admit using the word culture is not the most accurate term. Some examples; when mullahs use public funds for useless Islamist waste projects (and there are many many these days), it is CORRUPTION. When poor peasants of 1960's would spend the interest free agricultural loans to take their family to Haj, or Imam Reza Ziarat, instead of buying farm machinary and increased production, it was CORRUPTION. In a broader sense, the rampant behavior of every business owner to swindle you out of a few dollars is CORRUPTION, cultural, or otherwise.

The rest about the "country will pay for it…." is just a trivialized rant that is not even close. You might as well advocate housing for the homeless.

To KavehV: I am not quite

To KavehV:

I am not quite sure what you mean by "this is a cultural issue". You've written pages and pages about the cultural aspects of corruption. It's a lot of nice words, but that's all it is.

and then you say the following:

"The practice of accepting monetary "gift" on the part of corrupt official, in exchange for signing the contract, or accepting the bid does not necessarily produce an inferior bid, as you claim. These contracts have to be reviewed on individual basis, in order to determine the relative strength of each bid, and even then this is not an easy task in any environment"

so let me enlighten you on how a bidding process can be and usually IS manipulated in corrupt countries and who ultimately pays the price. The corruption starts long before there is even a concept of a bid or RFP. The bid itself is just paperwork and is meant for justifying their final selection if it comes to any form of scrutiny. There are months of behind the door negotiations before a RFP is send out and any bid is received. In a corrupt environment, you've already made your decison on who the winner should be and so you issue a document that makes that certain buyer look favorable. So if company X is strong in a number of areas, these strengths are all called out specifically as requirements in the RFP. Again, in a corrupt environment, the RFP process is simply to cover your behind if it comes to any kind of outside scrutiny. In simple terms, the RFP and all the documentation is just formality

The selection process typically goes through a committee or a single person and since the paperwork backs up the decision, we're all good and safe and ofcourse we've done our "due diligence" :-)

Now the country pays for it in a number of ways. A project could be too long which means the benefits may never be seen by the people. A project could have useless aspects which the people have to pay for. The project could cost more, and take a guess where that money comes from ..... or the project could lock up the buyer into multiple other useless projects by the same bidder (Dow Chemical)since they are the incumbent.

Thank you for your responses

Thank you for your responses Anonymous8 and KavehV, I need to digest and compare the info you have provided me with what I had in mind previously...
This river obviously runs deep...
Thanks again.

Iran, corruption and 1979

Sam,

This is a very interesting topic and I am, by no means, an expert on this subject. But, based on personal observations I can offer my views, and with limited time. There are a couple of things that comes to my mind when I hear about "corruption" and Iran:

First, the idea of corruption in the late 70's, in Iran, meant different things to different people. To us (friends and relatives), corruption meant the illegal accumulation of wealth by many, who abused their career and social standings. Many, or the most visible cases, were associated with the government and the court (Darbar). At the same time, many were not able to differentiate between legal and illegal cases of the wealthy, other than arbitrary personal observations, rumors, or accusations. In many cases, there were no specific laws that would prohibit or regulate questionable sources of income, or "shady deals".

To other parts of the society, especially the traditional religious population, most signs of western culture such as women's emancipation and the changing social structure along with all the ensuing effects of economic development of the society meant only one thing: "CORRUPTION". Therefore, "corruption" became an Islamic slogan and big propaganda. The real negative impact of this slogan, aside from looting property and murdering people in the name of Allah and "corruption" has been the loathsome attitudes and feelings toward wealth and wealth producing which impeded the economic development of the society even more.

Second, which is related to the first point, but with a more profound historical background. This is a common problem in the developing world and is not limited to Iran (and I am inadequately describing it as): low industrial/development aptitude or potential. For example, and it may help to think of the world 30 years ago, many times when funds and resources were available to local organizations and groups of people in Iran (or just about any developing country) for economic development, the end result was squandering of the resources. Local leaders, organizers and others with access to these resources, through their ignorance, short sightedness, cultural or religious disability, or general lack of initiative were unable to utilize these resources for the intended developments. The result was, always, the rapid disappearance of the funds through out right theft, illegal or unauthorized expenditures. This is probably the most dominant issue, as it relates to corruption, throughout the developing world and is common everywhere.

Sam: corruption works exactly the same way everywhere

If you have kissed the right behind and kept your mouth shut (like most Pahlavi cronies), were willing to be a cheerleader for you mafia don, you got to be in charge of "managing" the "contracts" and "namayendegis" which is nothing more than trading favors with foreign companies or your own blood-sucking rivals in other parts of the government.

It's exactly the same in the US. Bush got every single cent he owns because of his father's connections with powerful people like Saudi Oil interests and Latin American elite. Now that he's President he's funnelling public money in the form of military spending and no-bid government contracts to Republican cronies.

Can someone enlighten me/us

Can someone enlighten me/us on how corruption works in other countries of the world vs Iran.
As I have heard it has ALWAYS been prevalent in Iran in different forms and formats (bribery, payoffs, kick backs) as mentioned here.
I was born post revolution.

Lets get the facts right

Babak,

First of all, I have not condoned any of the pre-79 corruption. You may read my post again, your passion is misguided. This is a cultural issue and mostly resides within modern Iranian culture. There was less of it during Pahlavis because of the "westward" tendencies of the system that wanted to integrate a western style industrial economic system in Iran. In theory, the system; government and the law, discouraged traditional (cultural and business) practices that were prone to corruption. In practice, the country was exposed to traditional AND western type of corruption, and still is today.

The practice of accepting monetary "gift" on the part of corrupt official, in exchange for signing the contract, or accepting the bid does not necessarily produce an inferior bid, as you claim. These contracts have to be reviewed on individual basis, in order to determine the relative strength of each bid, and even then this is not an easy task in any environment.

Furthermore, given the economic growth, stability and security of Iran, in 70's, all the reputable multinational technology companies were participating in competitive bids in Iran which minimized any chances for inferior bids. If Mitsubishi Chemical and Dow Chemical were bidding for a billion dollar construction of a petrochemical plant in Iran, how do you determine which has the inferior bid ? Is the willingness (or demand) of the (corrupt) local official to accept "gifts" enough to call it an inferior bid ? Of course not, need "due diligence" !

Let me repeat again; in these cases the "gift" money flowing into the pockets of the corrupt government officials was NOT Iranian national wealth! It came from foreign contractors and not Iranian people. If in some cases the project cost was slightly more than it should have been, you can not blame corruption alone (basic project management). There are many many factors involved so you got to do your "due diligence"! Ultimately, these were investments in the future of the country that would create jobs, income and higher standard of living for all, and by no means considered to be a loss, even if some happened ot be on the expensive side.

FYI, US president has been making $400K since 2001.

Let's set some facts straight

To KavehV .... apparently after 30 years, you yourself haven't learned what corruption means and who pays for it. First off, the fact that you have to give a gift is evidence that your bid is not competitive. So you are wrong if you think the people of iran don't pay for it and its just the employees and shareholders that pay the price. They pay for it indirectly by accepting inferior bids or contracts which ultimately comes out of the country's budget. The second point is that there is a big difference between a private company accepting "gifts", versus a state owned entity which employs public servants whose sole purpose is to serve the country. Afterall, if their purpose is to make money, they should go into the private sector.

To Jamshid: there is nothing wrong with being a public servant and being rich, but explain to me how a government employee can leave the country with 500 millon, heck, or even 50 million ...the president of United States earns approximately $200,000 in base salary. This is less than some of Director level positions in high-tech companies. Yet, somehow we should believe that Ansari made his fortune in honest ways.

To Aref: I don't see what your value add is in this discussion. Make your own points and some quoting passages from the original post

Not all was illegal pre-1979

After 30 years so many people have still not realized some basic facts about the corruption before revolution. Most of the pre-1979 government officials who accumulated their wealth were through kick-backs from foreign corporations and conglomerates. So this money actually belongs to the employees and stock holders of the foreign companies than "the people of Iran". This was quite normal for the competing foreign companies to court executives and "decision makers" within various governmental ministries and agencies (i.e. NIOC) for the purpose of winning multi-billion dollar contracts in Iran. Unfortunately, this meant spending a few million dollars to buy "gifts", or just kick-backs for the decision making officials in Iran. This was not plundering of national wealth, or Iranian money!

The mullahs were the ones who took this a few steps further by plundering of the national wealth for themselves and their lackeys. Mullahs directly siphoned wealth out of nation's coffers, as they rarely had competing foreign companies willing to invest in Iran and pay kick-backs to mullahs. What is worse, is that these mullahs accumulated wealth during economic decline of Iran and during a bloody war, all of which was their making.

Most of the pre-1979 "stealing" was done through these kick-backs (many of which were legal) by foreign companies, but there were also a significant amount of money (business loans belonging to national banks) left the country in the 2-3 years prior to revolution. This was a clear case of fraud, in which, many companies (their individual executives) transferred their government loans to American and European accounts. This was all revealed within the first couple of years of the revolution when the revolutionary government took over the operation of these businesses and realized they are heavily in red. This was strictly the aftermath of the instability of the revolution.

capital and nationalities

Capital has no nationality and greed has no shame. When I look at Iran and Iranian poor today I see no change in their lives, promises unfulfilled. That's universal, Pick any country including the United State, the bottom layer does not even have the essential part of life, relative to their national wealth. In some countries they don't even have running water. Even in the poorest countries on this God forsaken planet, there are rich people beyond limit and poor that are living in dirt. Bill Gates sell expensive software and starts a charity to promote his name and everyone cheers. And we have our Ansary's who steals money from the people, it is stealing, and build himself wealth beyond measure and hangs out with the other rich folks. Nothing has change. Capital is faceless, without nation. and the religious figures keep on fooling the multitude.

Ansari's did well but.....

Ansari's have done well, and I think some where he has also partnered with Henry Kissinger on some vacation properties in the Virgin Islands, if memory serves me right.  Ansari has always had a sharp astute economic mind from the time of his business dealings in Japan all the way to the time when he took over the chairmanship of the NIOC after Dr. Eqbal's death, and he has deservedly made his fortune.  But what I cannot digest is how he has let himself be involved with the likes of Goli Ameri (Yazdi) when he must have known about her dubious past and alleged financial ties to the Islamic Republic and her families support for the revolution and Anti American sentiments.  You may tell me that many Iranians had these sentiments at the time of the revolution, but none are running for sensitive offices in America both in the public and private sector such as the Southern California Edison.  I would have expected Mr. Ansari's good judgements to have distanced him for the likes of Ameri (Yazdi) and her family.

Re: KavehP

Thank you for your response. 

I don't see anything wrong with being a public servant and being rich too. Why (to us Iranians) it means that one must be a "thief" in order to be rich? Is Bush a thief? There are many government officials in the Japanese governments that are rich beyond comprehension, more than Ansari could even dream in the previous regime, but they are not considered thieves.

I don't care about Ansari. I really don't. It is the mentality I described above that I am questioning. If Ansari was a thief, I'd like to known when and from whom did he steal? If he became rich through making smart deals because he had inside information, what's wrong with that?

However, advocating normalization of relations with the IRI is something else. That is equivalent to legitimizing this barbaric regime. Only traitors do that. Is there any evidence I could read or see that shows Ansari is an advocate of normalization of relations with the IRI? I would be interested. Thanks.

the picture above

I think if i had $500+ million assests, I would dress better than that, where did she get that jacket anyway, goodwill?

Sorry, but my comment is a deserving match for the article if you think well about it.

Cheers

Fred, "jeeb chon bank"...

Fred, "jeeb chon bank"... hadn't heard that one, funny...lol.

OK, let's say he took the money...(obvoiusly it needs to be proved) otherwise anyone can accuse any other person of having taken $$$$$ if they have a 'khoordeh-boordeh' with them!

Accusations are as free flowing as water down a hill.

This one seems like it could be accurate... but what are we to do about it?

Do you think he'd give me my share if I went to him and said: "Mr. Ansary please give me back my share of the money you took out of the country when you left Iran"!

What would my share be anyway? Would I even have a share, or would that belong to my less priviledged hamvatrans who are living in poverty.

Maybe I could play Robin Hood and take it from the likes of him and send it back to the real people to whom it belongs in Iran!

The thing is if he did take the money, (I'm trying to be fair) he did invest and increase it x fold so he has worked to increase the initial sum... how much do I take and how much do I leave for him??

So many questions and so little time!!
Help me to figure this out someone!

Korians

Sohrab, I accept everything you wrote and belive it is true, but I don't thing the picture you have posted from Ansari and his wife are Iranians. They seem to be a Korian couple!!! Thanks for the info. Keep up the good work!

jamshid

Jamshid, dude, you are all over this site and as usual denying the facts. I have been trying to make you see the truth in another posting (Rez Topol/Koochoolo's interview) from many angles, but you are still hiding in your shell like a turtle and denying the truth!!! Here, more evidence that you were asking for! It is not to hard to understand, If you just knew the simple math and were a little fair. You keep denying the truth and keep running in circle and keep dreaming!!! Your Body, Dariush

Great entertainment

Very well written! Thank you for the great entertainment. Nothing better then a good conspericy theory to start the day.

“As we can see in IAPAC website, board of directors include Mr. Nemazee and also Mrs Nina Ansary, daughter of Hushang Ansary with a lot of stake in Ansary foundation and other companies belonging to Ansary family. Mr Nemazee and Hushang Ansary along with Henry Kissinger are in Asia Society which is an organization created by Rockefellers who also is founder of Trilateral Commission, a world economic entity. ….”

Keep up the good work and keep an eye out for those black helicopters. I heard that is what the Trilateral Commission uses to keep an eye on us unruly citizens.

Jamshid.....I like most of

Jamshid.....I like most of what you write, but I think you got the wrong end of the stick here.........

The point about Ansari, is that he was chairman of NIOC and held many ministerial positions. How can a public servant get his hand on $5 million (in 1978 value) let alone the $500 million mentioned in the infamous central bank list, without dubious means.

Second point about Ansari, is that he actually advocates normalising relations with IRI. how can a man with his past positons actually do that?

I am not a Pahlavi basher, far from it......but Ansari is one of the reasons that Iran is the way it is today. he sold out Iran and the shah.........

Where is the summary?

An article this long needs to have an introductory paragraph more or less telling us what to expect.  I started reading and got tired not knowing where it was gonna go or if it would interest me.

So this short, kachal, bald iranian guy Ansari tookout money, which I assume he stole and started his businesses in the US with 2.5 Millon dollars!! Well, this is what I was saying all along when they tell me Iranians are successful in the US.  If you were starting with 2.5 Millon dollars of shady origin, I'm sure you would do well as well. Hey you might find a tall girlfirend like this kachaloo did!!

//www.irannostalgia.com

irannostalgia.com

The missing Japanese wife

For what ever it is worth, somewhere along his matrimonial odyssey there is a Japanese wife as well, ergo the old (Chinese accented) joke about Ansari, jeeb chon bank.

Robin Hood

I'm not sure what the article is arguing.

The tone seems accusing. But the contents make it read like a Robin Hood story where the Ansarys are using stolen (allegedly) money to: 

Support and promote the election of candidates for federal, state and local office, regardless of party affiliation who are attuned to the domestic needs and issues of the Iranian American community ·

Support and promote Iranian American candidates for public office ·

Support and advance legislation as it affects the concerns of the Iranian American community ·

Encourage Iranian Americans to actively participate in the American electoral process

I met him in Tehran around 1969

I met Mr. Ansari in Tehran around 1969 when I was an Economic major at Tehran University. He did not impress any of the students in my class/group.

Many Iranians brought money to the U.S. and Europe including Ansari family. How do you think 41% of Beverly Hills houses are owned by Iranians many of whom purchased their properties with the money which they brought to the U.S.

Mr. Ansari mis-managed the Pahlavi money, but he did well on his own money.

This write up is copy and paste of bunch of true and some un-true stories.

In general, Iranians are namak nashnas.

Explain...

Farrokh: Explain how did Ansari "sold his soul for money to anybody."

Miz-abdol-azim khaneh Ghareeb: Please explain what is your evidence that Ansari embezled money in Iran? Many became rich during the previous regime. Explain why anyone who became rich in those times was automatically a thief.

It gives many of us a "special" pleasure, a kick,  to hate anything "pahlavi". But facts based on hatred are not the same than facts based on evidence.

That "special" pleasure drove many of the revolutionaries to quickly execute the "rejaal" of the previous regime, most of them quite innocent.

Many crowds watched the pictures of those executed with a bullet in their head in the newspapers and with an ear to ear smile, and while grinding their teeth with that same "special" pleasure, said to the executed things like, ahaan, khoob shod, becheshin, haal kardam, noosheh joonetoon, etc. They got a "kick" and a feeling of satisfaction. Those crowds are still paying the price today after some 30 years.

You seem to be of the same type than those crowds.

Same crime as many, many other iranians did inside iran

Why is this a surprize? It shouldn't be. When a country is in turmoil like Iran was in 1979, what do you expect to see?? Weren't there 100's of thoiusands of other regular iranians who did the same, only with little order of magnitude??

I mean people do take (mis)advantage in their own benefit, don't they?? And finally, why do we need to focus on someone who apperantly made a crime 30 years ago, while right now, the current regime is doing maybe much more worse!!

As Farokh said, what's the point! the country Iran is gone anyway...the only hope is for the future generations to save its face again..

Saints and Angels!

Of course, all those saints and angels running IRI only care about Iran and do not give a damn about money!

To Jamshid

The author did not "trash" Ansari family as you interpreted, he gave us an example of hypocracy among Iranians that left Iran and act as if they gained that wealth in this country, instead of embezlement out of Iran.

In 1980 there was an article in Dallas Morning News about Ansari and title was something like "From Rag to Riches" and went on details of how he came to USA empty handed and made his fortune in USA? What a bullshit that article was to assume someone can earn so much in one year. And funnier than that was he also had a chain of cafe and bakery in Dallas area, perhaps as a decoy!

It is human nature!

Ingrained habits are hard to break

Some years back from his resort in St. Marteen where he is much beloved by the locals Ansary had an interesting email exchange with Jahansha Javid. It is good to know he has kept up and passed along his knack for none discriminating ingratiation habits to family, associates and pacs alike.

Venting off frustrations?

Farrokh joon

By "the most notorious criminal on Earth", you mean the Supreme leader Ali Khamneii or his predecessor?

Don't you think you are exaggerating and just venting off your personal frustrations by calling "a few million Americans" criminals and corrupt?

American people on the average are very decent hard-working family oriented people, of course in every nation you can find vermins and corrupt people as we did among the turbaned ruling families and their cohorts in Iran.

The point!?

I guess the point he is trying to make is that there are some Iranians who would sell out their souls for money to anybody, even the most notorious criminal on Earth.

I think you can find that in a few million Americans as well.