 "(FILES) This handout picture taken in Tehran on October 30, 2024, and provided by the office of Iran's supreme leader, shows Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28, 2026 in a US-Israeli military strike. (AFP)")
Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader of Iran, owns two luxury properties just a minute’s walk from the Israeli embassy in London through middlemen and shell companies, according to Bloomberg.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts named Mojtaba as the Supreme Leader of Iran last week. He is the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the previous Supreme Leader, who was killed in American and Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Bloomberg said its yearlong investigation was based on a review of real estate documents and an assessment of a Western intelligence agency along with interviews with people familiar with transactions.
As per the investigation, Mojtaba used a network of shell companies and proxies to acquire several luxury properties in Europe and West Asia. The two luxury flats near the Israeli embassy cost Mojtaba £35 million. The money came from the proceeds of the illicit sale of the Iranian oil.
Last year, the British government sanctioned the person reported to be Mojtaba’s main proxy, Ali Ansari, for financing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the all-powerful military and intelligence force that functions as the Supreme Leader’s sword arm. The government is in the process of freezing his assets.
How Ansari bought luxury properties for Khamenei Jr
Ansari bought the two properties in the Kensington Palace Gardens, one of the poshest neighbourhoods in the United Kingdom, in 2014 and 2016 on behalf of Mojtaba, according to the investigation.
The property bought in 2014 cost £16.75 million and the one bought in 2016 cost £19 million. Their current cost is estimated to be around £50 million.
Separately, The Daily Telegraph reported that the British intelligence community is aware of the ownership of these properties.
Other than London, Mojtaba also owns a villa in a neighbourhood called the ‘Beverly Hills of Dubai’ and luxury hotels in Frankfurt, Germany, and Mallorca, Span, as per the report.
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View AllAnsari arranged funds for these purchases through banks in the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the UAE. Most of these funds —originating in the Iranian oil trade that is sanctioned— flowed through non-Iranian companies like the Saint Kitts and Nevis-based Ziba Leisure Ltd, Isle of Man-based Birch Ventures Ltd, A&A Leisure Ltd, and Emirati entities like Midas Oil Industries and Midas Oil Trading.