page_title: Corruption in Iran
section_title: Corruption among the Royal family and court
hierarchical_section_title: Corruption in Iran / Pahlavi dynasty / Corruption among the Royal family and court
caption_attribution_description: English: 650 Fifth Avenue in New York City
context_page_description: Corruption is a serious problem in Iran, being widespread, mostly in the government.
context_section_description: Built up by forced sales and confiscations of estates, Reza Shah was "the richest man in Iran" and "left to his heir a bank account of some 3 million pounds and estates totalling over 3 million acres. A 1932 report of British Embassy in Tehran indicates that Reza Shah developed an "unholy interest in land" and jailed families until they agreed to sell their properties.
  In the 1950s, Mohammad Reza Shah founded Pahlavi Foundation (now Alavi Foundation) which "penetrated almost every corner of the nation's economy". Bostock and Jones unambiguously declared that Pahlavi Foundation a "nominally charitable foundation fostered official corruption". According to Houchang Chehabi and Juan Linz, Alavi foundation's $1.05 billion assets, $81 million capital and its declared devined $4.2 million was the "tip of the iceberg of official and dynastical corruption, outside and inside Iran".  The foundation, which was one of his main wealth sources alongside estates left from Reza Shah and Iran's oil revenue, was a tax haven for his holdings.
  Many members of the Pahlavi clan were among the chief perpetrators of corruption in Iran. Royal court was described as "center of licentiousness and depravity, of corruption and influence peddling" in a mid-1970s CIA report. Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda who served from 1965 to 1977 had no choice but to facilitate or condone "the ubiquitous corruption of the Pahlavi Clan" and ignore "the corruption that saturated the regime".
  In 1960, there were rumours that Princess Ashraf, Shah's twin sister was arrested in Geneva carrying a suitcase containing $2 million worth of heroin. She was regarded as Iran's main drug dealer until 1979. A 1976 CIA report declared that she has a "near legendary reputation for financial corruption" and his son Shahram controls some-twenty companies that serve as "cover for Ashraf's quasi-legal business ventures". Prince Hamid Reza, the Shah's half-brother, was ostracized from the royal family because of his widespread scandals of promiscuity, addiction and involvement in drug trade.
  According to William Shawcross, hundreds of call girls from Madame Claude's establishment in Paris passed through Tehran for Mohammad Reza Shah and members of his court.
caption: Piaget Building, located in Manhattan, New York was designed for Pahlavi Foundation
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