Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named Iran’s new supreme leader over the weekend, shares something in common with President Donald Trump: They have both amassed global real estate empires.
The son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike when the war began, represents the Islamic Republic’s first hereditary succession.
The younger Khamenei is close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the regime’s decision to elevate him to the top spot is seen as evidence hard-liners are in charge with little inclination to reach a deal that ends the war.
But before the conflict, he largely kept a low profile while accumulating assets around the world. A Bloomberg investigation in January found Khamenei has avoided putting investments in his own name, but they totaled more than $138 million.
That includes Swiss bank accounts as well as luxury properties. Among his holdings in several of London’s ritziest neighborhoods is a house on “Billionaires’ Row.” Sources told Bloomberg Khamenei’s real estate empire also boasts a villa in the “Beverly Hills of Dubai” and upscale European hotels.
At the time, Khamenei didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment that were sent via Iran’s foreign ministry and embassies in the UAE and U.K. An intermediary who reportedly handled Khamenei’s deals denied any personal or financial ties to him.
Fortune’s request for comment to the foreign ministry couldn’t be delivered by email owing to the country’s internet lockdown. Iran’s representative to the United Nations didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry.
Meanwhile, Trump is worth $7.3 billion, according to Forbes last year. His golf clubs and resorts alone totaled $1.3 billion, while his other real estate investments, such as office towers, hotels, and residential developments, were worth $1.2 billion.
His liquid and crypto assets were valued at $2.4 billion last year, while Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, was worth $2 billion. The market selloff since he launched his war on Iran has dented those holdings.
Khamenei’s overseas assets pale in comparison to Trump’s net worth, but now that he has taken over in Iran, he assumes a dominant role over the country’s economy.
The supreme leader heads the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, a state-owned conglomerate that was created after the seizure of thousands of properties in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. According to Bloomberg, it manages billions of dollars worth of assets, commercial holdings and charities, operating in a wide array of sectors.
Similarly, Khamenei also controls the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which began as a paramilitary force to ensure the regime’s political power but eventually developed a diversified business empire of its own. That includes core industrial sectors like oil and transportation as well as banking, telecommunications, agriculture, medicine, and real estate.
The IRGC uses affiliates to engage in business activities. For example, the Khatam al-Anbiya engineering firm has built refineries, a railway line, a dam, and a natural gas pipeline. It also controls Tehran’s international airport.
Another pillar of the IRGC’s business empire is its network of “foundations” that essentially form semiprivate monopolies, though they began as organizations to advance religious and revolutionary goals.
“However, over time, wealth accumulation in the service of a wider range of ruling elite objectives, such as self-enrichment, political control, regime survival, and social engineering, became an end in itself,” the Clingendael think tank said in an October report. “What began as vehicles for social justice evolved into corporate-style conglomerates that were shielded from oversight and yet central to the power base of the revolutionary state.”
