After Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,..., one of Iran's proxies, attacked Israel by surprise on October 7, 2023, the Iranian regime and its allies have sustained major military and strategic losses at the hands of Israel. For instance, Hezbollah, from far its most powerful proxy, is just a shadow of itself after the elimination of most of its leadership, including its long-time ruthless chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...>
. Therefore, apparatchiks of the regime started panicking, deciding that it was time to either turn against the regime by defecting and/or working for the Israelis or the Americans to build a life abroad.
On the financial side, a very credible and reliable source to my firm alleged that vast amounts of cash had been transferred to Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south...
and Canada, and also that last summer, Iranian dignitaries purchased large pieces of real estate in the French Riviera to plan for their post-Tehran life. Most of the buyers are reportedly mid-levels officers of the Revolutionary Guards. The median price of the properties is between 3 and 5 millions Euros. They all have used intermediaries to close the purchase of the properties. In a way, it is quite meaningful that it's not only the top leadership that is preparing their exile in case of a fall of the regime.
When it comes to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who cultivates the image of a simple and pious man, he is actually reigning over a veritable industrial empire, owning many real estate assets. Some of these assets are said to be the result of the spoliation of the property of thousands of families in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution. The amount of assets over which it has control is estimated to be a whopping figure between $95 billion and $200 billion. Through a foundation called Setad, which is present in all sectors of the Iranian economy, Khamenei is said to own dozens of companies. Setad is the key interlocutor for foreign companies wishing to invest in Iran, and its financial flows are completely opaque. Iranian law exempts the Leader of the Revolution from accountability. The money that the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guards have amassed over the past forty-six years is their life insurance in case the regime falls.