Tens of millions of pounds that helped finance the purchase of luxury homes in London by Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, were provided as a loan by a company owned by British-Israeli businessmen, according to an investigation by the Israeli watchdog outlet Shomrim in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The investigation reveals that a £36 million loan, granted in 2013, was provided to a company registered in the Isle of Man, a well-known tax haven.
At the time, none of the Iranians involved in the deal were under sanctions, and there were no legal restrictions preventing the loan. However, from Khamenei’s perspective, the choice of a company with Israeli ownership underscores what critics describe as the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime’s attitude toward Israel and Israelis.
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Rally in support of the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei
(Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
Global network of assets and money laundering
About two months ago — before the current war and before the assassination of Khamenei’s father — Bloomberg published an extensive investigation into the business empire of the younger Khamenei.
According to that report, which relied on confidential business documents, property records and testimony from Western intelligence sources, Mojtaba Khamenei was able in certain years to circumvent sanctions imposed on Iran, as well as personal sanctions placed on him in 2019, and transfer billions of dollars into Western countries.
The funds reportedly came from the sale of Iranian oil and were laundered through a network of shell companies and numerous bank accounts in Britain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United Arab Emirates. The laundered money flowed to associates of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the Khamenei family, and was used in part to purchase property around the world.
Bloomberg identified Ali Ansari, a 57-year-old Iranian businessman who also holds Cypriot citizenship, as the backbone of the network. The additional citizenship enabled him to open bank accounts and register companies across Europe without raising suspicion.
Ansari, who has known Mojtaba Khamenei since the 1980s, reportedly served as the family’s primary proxy in Europe, including handling real estate acquisitions.
In London, Bloomberg reported, Khamenei controls more than 12 properties worth about $120 million, including a villa valued at more than $40 million. He also owns stakes in two hotels in Germany, a luxury golf resort in Mallorca, properties in Paris, and a luxury villa in Dubai’s Beverly Hills district.
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Mojtaba Khamenei and Kensington Palace, which is adjacent to the building where he owns apartments
(Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP, Alamy Stock Photo / Daily Mail)
Ansari’s activities in Europe, which lasted for at least a decade and a half, ended last October when British authorities sanctioned him, labeling him a “corrupt Iranian banker and businessman” who financed the Revolutionary Guards, and freezing his assets.
Ansari denied Bloomberg’s allegations and said he has no connection to Khamenei. Following the report, authorities in Germany and Canada opened investigations, and Cyprus said it was examining how he used his citizenship. In a minor but telling consequence, the Booking.com platform removed the German hotels linked to the network from its listings.
According to Bloomberg, Khamenei’s London properties were purchased and are held through a shell company called Birch Ventures, registered in the Isle of Man, with Ansari as the ultimate beneficiary.
The financing behind a major property deal
The new investigation by Shomrim and the ICIJ now reveals the financing behind one of the largest real estate deals carried out by that company.
In 2013, the shell company received a £36 million loan to purchase properties covering more than 20 dunams (about five acres) on Bishops Avenue in London, often referred to as “Billionaires’ Row.”
It is unclear why the company needed the loan, but experts in financial crime note that loans are a common method used in money-laundering schemes, particularly when authorities might question the origin of funds.
At the time, Ansari was known simply as an active Iranian banker, and no sanctions or legal restrictions prevented doing business with him.
Documents obtained by Shomrim show that the loan was issued by a subsidiary of a British private investment fund called LJ Partnership, which acted as an intermediary. The actual financing, however, came from another company, Topland Jupiter Limited.
Topland later described the loan as a successful transaction and even issued a press release detailing the deal, although the Isle of Man company was not mentioned. Instead, the announcement said the loan had been granted to the intermediary LJ Partnership.
Did the Iranian side know the source of the money? According to the documents, yes. Topland’s name appeared in the guarantee documents for the loan, which listed the 12 London homes pledged as collateral.
The documents also reveal that the loan was fully repaid about two years later, in September 2015.
Additional records show that the relationship between LJ Partnership and Ansari continued in later years. In 2018, LJ loaned an undisclosed sum to another Ansari-linked company, Ziba Leisure, using the same London properties as collateral.
The brothers from Ramat Gan
Topland Jupiter, the company that ultimately financed the loan, is part of the Topland Group, a British investment firm founded by Israeli-born businessmen Sol and Eddie Zakay, brothers originally from Ramat Gan.
According to a past profile in the Israeli financial newspaper TheMarker, Sol Zakay moved to London in the 1970s and entered real estate almost by accident after buying a warehouse for £40,000 and selling it three weeks later for £100,000.
Together with his brother Eddie, he went on to build Topland into one of Britain’s largest real estate investment companies, with assets worth billions of pounds. The brothers made strategic acquisitions during economic downturns, including purchasing Marks & Spencer properties for $600 million and Tesco assets for $1.2 billion.
In 2009, according to the report, Zakay left London after Britain introduced a tax policy requiring foreigners to pay 50% tax on overseas income, relocating to Israel and Gibraltar. At the time, his fortune was estimated at £1.5 billion, and associates described him as sitting on “a mountain of cash” from property sales and debt refinancing carried out before the global financial crisis.
Since then, Sol Zakay has reportedly left Israel as well.
The brothers, often described as media-shy, have donated to Jewish and Israeli humanitarian causes. For example, in 2018 Sol Zakay was listed as a patron of the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, and in 2023 the brothers hosted a luncheon honoring Holocaust survivors. In 2025, the Sunday Times estimated their combined wealth at $3.6 billion.
The LJ Group, which arranged the loans, has since undergone several transformations and is now part of another company called AITI.
In response to questions from Shomrim, the company said the inquiries relate to “historical activities of LJ Partnership that occurred prior to the establishment of Alvarium and subsequently AlTI Tiedemann Global.” It added that the current company “was not involved and has no connection to historical activities conducted by previous entities.”
Topland Group declined to comment.