Index entries Archive - Page 8 of 30

Ebrahim Asgarian Damavandi

Vice Chairman of Etrat Fatemi Charity. Asgarian Damavandi is one of the wealthiest men in Iran and the founder of Kaveh Glass Industrial Group, a holding established in 1984. He is on the board of several organizations and charities connected to the supreme leader’s family. It should be noted that despite one of his factories in Maragheh, East Azarbaijan, being responsible for groundwater contamination due to improper waste management, Damavandi has not been held accountable.

The charity’s other board members include Seyyed Ali Naqi Khamoushi, Seyyed Abbas Pour Hashemi (former VP for the development of rural areas and impoverished areas), Moammad Reza Masjedi (secretary general of the Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association), Tabarak Sobhani (former IKRF director), Ali Haji Seyyed Soleiman (Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association trustee), Mohammad Taheri Jebeli (speaker for the International Front for the liberation of Imam Musa Sadr), and Majid Shayesteh (cleric Mohsen Qaraati’s son-in-law).

Mostafa Morsali

Board Chairman of Etrat Fatemi Charity. Morsali is a cleric with close ties to Ali Khamenei and one of the founders of the Islamic Revolution Committees that dispatched impromptu justice to perceived enemies of the 1979 Revolution in the early years of the regime. He represented the supreme leader at Sharif University, traveled with Ali Akbar Velayati on diplomatic missions, and founded the Ghadir Encyclopedia Foundation with Velayati. Morsali is the CEO of Ashura International Bonyad, which was created on the order of the supreme leader to promote Khamenei’s agenda internationally. He is also a trustee of the Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association. Morsali is also a founding member and trustee of Khatam University along with Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Zahra-Sadat Nayeri

CEO and Board Member of Etrat Fatemi Charity. The daughter of Seyyed Reza Nayeri, Zahra sits on the board of two other charities: Boutorab Khoy Charity and the National Network of Charities Supporting Orphans. Both of these institutions also have Mohammad Ali Hadi Najafabadi , who was sentenced in the Sarmayeh Bank case, on their board of directors.

Seyyed Reza Nayeri

Former Board Chairman of Etrat Fatemi Charity. A longtime member of the Islamic Coalition Party, Nayeri was one of the founders of IKRF and its director for 27 years. Before his death, Nayeri was vice chairman of the Association of the Supporters of the Development of Seminaries (SL family), trustee of Be’sat Foundation (religious bonyad and publisher), and a board member of the Society for the Defence of Palestinian Nation (Qalibaf network).

Etrat Fatemi Charity

Considered a charity that only caters to orphans who are Sadat—i.e., descendents of the Prophet Muhammad—Etrat Fatemi has connections to influential bonyads like Astan Quds Razavi and Imam Khomeini Relief Fund.

The charity signed an MoU with Astan Quds Razavi in 2020 and one with Imam Khomeini Relief Fund (IKRF) in 2016 in which Etrat Fatemi agreed to take over the obligations of IKRF with regards to the 1,500 Sadat orphans seeking aid from the organization.

According to public records from the Majles, Etrat Fatemi was also involved in importing automobiles and wanted to use a Pahlavi-era customs law that exempts charities from paying customs tax and fees.

Mohsen Rafiqdoust is a member of its board of directors. Past and present board members include Seyyed Reza Nayeri, Zahra-Sadat Nayeri, Mostafa Morsali, and Ebrahim Asgarian Damavandi.

IRAN’S HOUSE OF CHARITIES (KHANEH KHAYYERIN IRAN)

Founded in May 2004, this institution’s articles of incorporation state it was set up to “promote the culture of benevolence and charity in the country,” “prepare the grounds for increasing public participation in charitable affairs,” “strengthen the financial means of charitable institutions,” “work towards developing

Abdolreza Kashani

Son of Reza Motallebi Kashani through whom he has extensive ties to Canada, where he makes sizable donations to charities such as St. Paul’s Foundation in Vancouver, to which he gave $2 million in 2015 and an undisclosed amount in memory of his daughter Zahra Motallebi Kashani in 2019–2020.

Maghz Medad Rayen

Another company connected to Cedar Medad, this one produced pencil lead. Reza Motallebi Kashani became its dissolution manager in 2006.

Cedar Medad Iran

This company, a producer of school supplies, was dissolved in 2018. But public records show that in 2006, Reza Motallebi Kashani was its board chairman, while Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, the late head of the Assembly of Experts, was a board member.

Alvand Hospital and Maternity Care

For unexplained reasons this hospital was given to Reza Motallebi Kashani on July 4, 2008, and dissolved by him less than a year later, although public records do not reflect the dissolution until 2013. Motallebi Kashani was board chairman, shareholder, and treasurer of the hospital.

An account of what happened can be pieced together through news items such as a labor website’s copy of an ILNA story, which is no longer available in ILNA archives. It appears that on March 17, 2009, Alvand Hospital’s new shareholders—i.e., Motallebi Kashani and his business partner, Mehrdad Nouri—informed staff that the hospital would be closing for good. The 250 employees, shocked about losing their jobs just a few days before the Persian New Year (March 21), staged a protest in front of the hospital.

At the time, one protester told ILNA that some hospital staffers had been previously laid off because of what they were told would be renovations to the facility. A member of the hospital security added that the new shareholders had created countless problems after taking over, and despite promising to “increase salaries and improve the quality of life for staff they closed the hospital.”

According to the hospital.ir website, the private hospital was turned into a “commercial property.” Whether or not that was always the plan, the former hospital is located very close to major shopping centers like Alaeddin Mall, Iran Mobile Market, and Charsou Mall.