While ordinary Iranians face hyperinflation, water shortages, and a collapsed currency that triggered the 2025-26 protests, the islamic republic’s ruling elite have systematically siphoned national wealth into private networks and offshore accounts. This extraction is not incidental corruption but a structural feature of the regime, where state resources are treated as patronage assets for security and clerical elites rather than public goods.

Here are some sources documenting this entrenched kleptocracy:

• A 2019 investigation from Reuters revealed that "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei controlled a financial empire worth an estimated $95 billion through Setad (EIKO), a conglomerate built on confiscated property and operating outside parliamentary oversight or audit: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part1

• The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned numerous IRGC-linked entities and individuals (including the Khatam al-Anbiya construction conglomerate) for diverting billions in oil revenue and public contracts to fund regional proxies and enrich senior commanders while domestic infrastructure crumbles: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm703

• Research from the International Alliance for Rights in Iran details how bonyads (para-statal foundations) collectively control between 20% and 40% of Iran’s GDP, operate tax-exempt without external audits, and function as opaque vehicles for elite consolidation and financing proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis: https://iari.site/2025/11/18/bonyads-the-opaque-world-of-irans-foundations/