Key facts
- Billionaire Reform UK donor Hossein Ghandehari was involved in a joint venture with Iran's Astan Quds Razavi (AQR) foundation.
- AQR is a powerful religious foundation linked to Iran's supreme leader.
- The joint venture aimed to build a fiber-optic cable across Iran between 2013 and 2016.
- Ghandehari's lawyers claim his involvement was to promote political change through information access.
- The US sanctioned AQR in 2021 for controlling large swaths of the Iranian economy.
Hossein Ghandehari, a significant donor to the UK's Reform UK party, had business dealings with Astan Quds Razavi (AQR), a powerful Iranian religious foundation controlled by the country's supreme leader, between 2013 and 2016. Ghandehari, who runs the $10 billion HP Trust fund, was a major investor in a joint venture, Omran Razavi International Co, aimed at building a fiber-optic cable network across Iran. AQR, which held a 51% stake in the venture, was led by Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi, a figure close to Iran's leadership.
The joint venture concluded around 2016, with Ghandehari's entities reportedly being excluded. The US sanctioned AQR in 2021, citing its control over substantial parts of the Iranian economy for the benefit of senior officials. Ghandehari's legal representatives stated his intention was to foster political change through increased access to information, and that he was later targeted by Iran's supreme national security council with false allegations.
Until 2016, Ghandehari's HP Trust also owned Orico General Trading LLC, which supplied telecoms equipment from Alcatel-Lucent to Iran. This company was subsequently transferred to John Richard Simpson, another Reform UK donor, who managed its wind-down. Simpson stated he acquired the company after Iranian hardliners took over AQR and faced political persecution.