By Kayhan Life Staff
An investigative report released on April 28 by the German newspaper Bild has revealed the alleged operations of fraudulent companies associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The focal point of the investigation is MAPNA Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of the MAPNA Group headquartered in Tehran.
MAPNA Europe GmbH’s office is in a nondescript office complex in Dusseldorf, Germany. The report noted that the complex is located between the city’s central railway station and the old town.
According to Bild, the only name on the company’s letterbox is Abbas Aliabadi, currently the Minister of Industry, Mines, and Trade in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Bild said he served as the CEO of MAPNA Europe GmbH for 15 years before assuming his ministerial role. The report also mentioned that Mr. Aliabadi is an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officer.
According to Bild, after leaving MAPNA Europe GmbH, Aliabadi purportedly remained involved in the company from behind the scenes. MAPNA Europe GmbH’s parent company, MAPNA Group, is reportedly a significant cornerstone of the Iranian economy.
“MAPNA constructs power plants and oil production facilities, employing 15,000 individuals, generating a yearly revenue of $2 billion. The company is affiliated with the religious foundation Astan-e Qods Razavi, which is overseen by Iran’s [Supreme Leader Ayatollah] Ali Khamenei (85),” Bild said.
Astan Qods Razavi is the administrative organization that manages the shrine of the eighth Shia Imam, Imam Reza, in Mashhad, the capital of the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi.
According to Bild, several political experts, including Emanuele Ottolenghi, a political scientist and Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C., have raised concerns about the activities of MAPNA Europe GmbH in Dusseldorf.
“Mr. Ottolenghi previously testified at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he said: “The company is torpedoing the economic sanctions against Iran and doing dubious business with subsidiaries in Dubai, Turkey, and China,’” Bild said.
“The former governor of the Iranian Central Bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri, also worked for MAPNA Europe. In 2018, he even ran a business in Düsseldorf. Ten years ago, Mazaheri made headlines in Germany when he was caught at Düsseldorf Airport with a check for 54 million euros,” Bild noted.
“MAPNA Europe works with an international shipping company in North Rhine-Westphalia. Strange: Sometimes, the company deals with industrial equipment, and sometimes, the company appears to deal with frozen food. There is no reliable information. A website does not exist. [Germany’s] Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) and customs did not want to comment when asked,” the Bild report claimed.
“When Iran signed the international nuclear agreement in 2015, and sanctions were relaxed, MAPNA’S business figures in Düsseldorf exploded: sales rose from a good 40 million euros (2015) to 98 million euros (2018). Since [then] U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, business has declined. Former business partners such as Siemens AG said they broke off contact with MAPNA,” Bild report said.
“The MAPNA company in Dusseldorf represents the economic interests of the mullah regime in Germany. Its parent company in Tehran is closely linked to the Astan-e Qods Razavi Foundation, which, among other things, finances Hezbollah terror in Lebanon,” Bild reported, quoting the spokesperson for the opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
