The ownership trail of a luxury estate in London offers a revealing glimpse into the routes used by Iranian-linked actors to acquire assets in the West.
An investigation by the Israeli watchdog outlet Shomrim shows that the properties were originally purchased through a loan worth tens of millions of pounds by a company registered in the Isle of Man, a well-known tax haven, without a publicly listed ultimate beneficial owner (UBO). About five years later, the company was registered under the name of Ali Ansari, an Iranian-Cypriot banker who, according to reports, is close to Iran’s supreme leader’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
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Tehran rally in support of Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei
(Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
It is important to note that at the time, there were no sanctions imposed on Ansari and no legal restrictions on doing business with him.
Global network of assets and money laundering
About three months ago, before the current war and before the assassination of his 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 a central figure in the network. The additional citizenship enabled him to open bank accounts and register companies across Europe with relative ease.
Ansari, who has known Mojtaba Khamenei since the 1980s, reportedly served as a key proxy for the family in Europe, including carrying out real estate acquisitions on its behalf.
In London, according to Bloomberg, Khamenei controls more than 12 properties worth about $120 million, including a villa valued at more than $40 million. He also holds stakes in two hotels in Germany, a luxury golf resort in Mallorca, properties in Paris and a villa in Dubai’s “Beverly Hills” district.
Ansari’s activity in Europe, which lasted at least a decade and a half, ended last October when British authorities sanctioned him, describing him as a “corrupt Iranian banker and businessman” who financed the Revolutionary Guards, and freezing his assets.
Ansari denied Bloomberg’s claims and said he has no connection to Khamenei. Following the report, authorities in Germany and Canada opened investigations, while Cyprus said it was examining how he used his citizenship. In a minor but telling consequence, Booking.com removed the German hotels linked to the network from its listings.
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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)
The luxury properties in London
According to British property records, the London assets are held by a company called Birch Ventures, registered in the Isle of Man. Since 2018, the company’s registered ultimate beneficial owner has been Ansari.
The new Shomrim investigation sheds light on one of the largest real estate transactions carried out by the company.
In 2013, ahead of the purchase, the company received a £36 million loan to acquire properties covering more than 20 dunams (about five acres) on Bishops Avenue in London, often referred to as “Billionaires’ Row.”
At the time, Isle of Man regulations did not require public disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners, and the identity of Birch Ventures’ owner does not appear in the documents. The law was changed in 2017, and about a year later Ansari was registered as the company’s UBO.
It should be noted that at the time, Ansari was known as an active Iranian-Cypriot banker, and there were no sanctions or legal barriers to conducting business with him.
The financing behind the deal
Documents obtained by Shomrim show that the loan to the Isle of Man company was issued in 2013 by a subsidiary of a British private investment fund, LJ Partnership, which acted as an intermediary in the transaction.
The actual financing came from another company, in whose favor the properties were also pledged as collateral.
The documents further show that the loan was fully repaid about two years after the deal was signed, in September 2015, and the lien was removed.
Additional documents from 2018 indicate another stage in the ownership chain: that year, LJ provided an additional loan, of an undisclosed amount, to a company linked to Ansari, Ziba Leisure. The same London properties were used as collateral.
Since issuing the loans, LJ has undergone multiple transformations and later merged into a global corporation composed of several companies. 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 the global corporation, which has no connection to those past activities.”
The company that ultimately financed the loan was also approached for comment but initially declined to respond. About a month after publication, it provided the following statement:
“The company provided a loan to Birch Ventures in 2013 for the acquisition of properties in north London. At the time, the company received legal advice from a British law firm and conducted the required due diligence and KYC procedures, which did not include any reference to Ali Ansari. The loan was fully repaid in September 2015, and since then the company has had no connection to the assets of Birch Ventures. To the best of our knowledge, Ali Ansari became involved with Birch Ventures in July 2018, approximately three years after our involvement ended.”
First published: 10:07, 03.12.26