Are the Supreme Leader and his son stealing Iran’s money?

I’m shocked, shocked to find a dictator would steal money while he’s oppressing the people.

Michael Ledeen on Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

The London Guardian, in a carefully worded account, tells us that the most powerful figure in the ongoing repression is Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba. He is said to be particularly enraged by the British Government’s seizure of more than a billion dollars in London accounts, at least some of which belongs to him. No one would be surprised to find that the supreme leader was a very wealthy man, or that he had salted away some of his money outside Iran.

I thought Iran’s democratic revolution was 10 years away. Now I think it’ll be sooner. But the democrats have a lot of people to chase to the airport.

When you’ve got an Islamic Republic that is neither godly nor a republic, you want to break the chains.

Frank Warner

Comments

[Kevin]

AAAAaaaaaack! Why are you posting a question as your title? If you don't already know the answer, then maybe you should do a little more digging before reporting on your subject.

Argh, I hate hate hate it when pundits want you to believe something without proof so they put a question mark at the end of the statement and then insinuate stuff. Ed Morrissey from Hotair does it all the freakin' time. It bugs the crap out of me.

If your facts don't give you enough confidence to remove that question mark, shut the heck up and post nothing.

*grumble*

[Kevin]

FWIW, I would have read the article if it was titled "The Supreme Leader and his son are stealing Iran’s money"

But as it stands, it's just some dude's opinion, or worse, his gut feeling. That's worthless.

[jj mollo]

I think it's likely that he's stealing money, though I suspect it's the whole oligarchy that's stealing money. That's what happens when there's state-owned oil. It's hard to know what's going on in Iran right now, but the Guardian article sounded convincing to me. The Guardian has done a lot of good reporting. It's not just a red rag any more. If Khamenei's son has taken over the crowd suppression operation against the wishes of the senior clerics, it's more than likely Khamenei is getting desperate. It's also more than likely he has a backup plan when everything goes wrong for him. I expect he'll be flying to Basra or Damascus, or even Turkey, but he won't be broke when he goes. There will probably be semis loaded with cash following after. It's happened before.

The Guardian article is quoting officials, btw, just not giving their names. Unless they are jerking the reporter around, it's probably good stuff.