SAEDNEWS: In a 3-Hour Interview for the Documentary 'From Tehran to Cairo,' Farah Pahlavi Claims the Shah Had Only $62 Million When Fleeing Iran
According to the Saed News Community Service, quoting ISNA, the Chief of Court Protocol announced the commencement of the Shah’s and his companions’ departure operations on January 14, 1979. He ordered that identification tags on the Shah’s luggage, packages, and chests, adorned with the Royal and Court insignia, be brought into Niavaran Palace so that proper protocol and final inspections could be conducted.
The exclusive royal tags were now ready to be attached to the luggage and chests. Orders to pack and seal the luggage and chests were issued on January 13, 1979, with the Shah’s approval and at Farah Pahlavi’s directive. Farah instructed that 384 pieces of luggage and chests be packed. A team approved by Farah was responsible for collecting and packing all kinds of antiques, jewelry, and precious diamonds, as well as all-gold watches, crowns, and emerald-encrusted tiaras.
“We do not claim; we prove that we provide the best services!”
This treasury of jewelry and antiques was stored in secure locations within Niavaran Palace. Farah supervised all the packing operations. The collection and packaging of U.S. dollars, which had been accumulated in cash for months, were managed by the palace’s financial department. The Imperial Crown, containing 3,380 diamonds, 50 emeralds, 368 pearls, and weighing 2.08 kilograms, had an incalculable monetary value. The Queen’s crown, with 1,646 diamonds and numerous other jewels and gold worth tens of millions of dollars, represented only a fraction of the stolen royal treasures.
Packing these treasures required exceptional speed to fit them into the luggage and chests. During this process, many jewels were stolen by members of the packing team, and no trace of them was ever recovered.
A media outlet affiliated with exiled monarchists in the UK, the satellite network “Manoto,” recently conducted a three-hour interview with Farah Pahlavi, reviewing her memories from leaving Iran, residing in various countries, up until the death of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
This television network, which openly shows its closeness to the Bahá’í Faith and monarchist circles, claimed in the interview that the Shah’s assets at the time of fleeing Iran were only $62 million! Farah repeatedly spoke tearfully about the hardships of life abroad but did not disclose how financial resources for her lavish lifestyle and the Pahlavi Foundation’s substantial support to regime opponents were funded. In her recent interview with the monarchist network “Manoto,” Farah concealed many truths and, in several cases, resorted to falsehoods. However, the historical memory of the Iranian nation and available documents clearly refute the fabrications and fantasies of this exiled family.
The assets that the Pahlavi family—both father and son, as well as sisters, brothers, and relatives—plundered from the public treasury include an extensive list of real estate and properties. In 1958, the Shah established the “Pahlavi Foundation,” placing some of his properties, including guesthouses, factory shares, companies, and banks, under the foundation’s control. This foundation replaced the “Pahlavi Real Estate Organization,” and in October 1961, the Shah issued a decree for charitable endowment of the foundation’s assets to cover up his illicit wealth, even though most trustees were himself and the royal court. Additionally, enormous amounts from oil revenues were credited to the foundation’s accounts.
In this way, the Pahlavi family not only retained their previous assets but also gained oil revenues. Although the foundation ostensibly aimed to support education, scholarships, and charitable works, the family simultaneously looted gifts, international loans, and maintained 207 economic institutions—including construction, mining, agriculture, insurance, banks, hotels, casinos, cabarets, and other corrupt enterprises—disrupting the country’s economic stability and fostering social and moral decay. In “The Growth of Capitalist Relations in Iran” by Mohammad Savadgar, a list of the Pahlavi Foundation’s properties, companies, and shares is provided, representing only a fraction of the Pahlavis’ holdings.
This list includes banks, investment companies, insurance firms, certain hotels, tourist-recreational complexes, and industrial assets such as factories and production companies across Iran and abroad. Many of these properties were seized from the court and regime affiliates during the revolution, but the status of foreign assets remains ambiguous—for instance, the Pahlavi Foundation’s building on Fifth Avenue, New York, valued at $14.5 million in 1975, and the Canal Street project in New Orleans. The Shah’s shares in international ventures were so extensive that some sources reported profits of $3 billion annually from global investments.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s overseas properties
In addition to the Pahlavi Foundation’s holdings and the palaces and gardens registered in the Shah’s and his family’s names, he owned many properties abroad. These included the most expensive house and park in London suburbs, Steylmans Palace and gardens in England (where Queen Elizabeth II was born), the most expensive garden and building in Naples, Italy, a grand villa and garden in Capri, Geneva’s historic Red Rose Palace, and a luxurious winter palace in St. Moritz, Switzerland, famously known among diplomats as Iran’s winter capital.
In 1971, the Shah purchased an island in Spain for $700 million, built a modern central building, surrounded it with medieval-style high walls, divided the remaining land into plots, and sold them to military and political officials. According to the Daily Express (London, March 28, 1978), the Shah also purchased a major property in the Rocky Mountains, USA, for £1 million. The exiled Shah’s wealth abroad was so vast that his sister Ashraf reportedly lost 15 million francs in a single night at a Cannes casino in 1974.
Latest figures on Pahlavi’s $100 billion theft
Financial Times examined the assets taken out of countries by fleeing dictators during the Arab uprisings and reported that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi exported $35 billion from Iran. Post-revolution investigations suggest that the total is even higher, as this figure likely refers only to direct currency transfers and excludes foreign properties and shares. Available documents indicate that 220 hectares of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s Iranian lands were sold before leaving the country in 1978, and the funds were taken abroad as currency. According to American media reports, the Shah’s wealth formed a complex network of companies, foundations, bank accounts, land in Costa del Sol, a villa in St. Moritz later purchased by Silvio Berlusconi, and properties worldwide.
According to the Shah’s wishes, his wealth was to be divided as follows: 20% to Farah Diba, 20% to his eldest son Reza, 15% to Farahnaz, 15% to Leila, 20% to his other son Alireza, 8% to Shahnaz, and 2% to his granddaughter Mahnaz Zahedi. Estimates of the Shah’s divided wealth range from $120 million (according to some family affiliates) to $100 billion (semi-official estimates). Abbas Milani, who is close to the family, considers $1 billion a more realistic estimate. The actual amount looted from Iran remains uncertain.
Regarding national assets removed by the Shah and his family prior to the revolution, particularly in the final months of his regime, Ardeshir Zahedi, a Pahlavi court insider, wrote: “The Tehran prosecutor under Sharif-Emami compiled an exact list of individuals who had taken currency abroad. Among them, His Majesty was accused of removing $31 billion from the country.” Zahedi, the Shah’s former Foreign Minister and last ambassador to the U.S., was the only official to remain with him during his illness in exile and assisted in his stay in the U.S.
During the revolution, while many offices were on strike, the Central Bank published a list on December 6, 1978, detailing those who had removed currency over August–October 1978. The list revealed that government officials had exported approximately $13 billion in currency.
Farah Pahlavi and her children claim the Shah’s assets were only $60 million, yet evidence shows that government officials alone removed $13 billion in two months, and the Shah and his associates took 384 large trunks of gold, jewelry, and other wealth previously converted into currency, indicating far greater plunder. The Central Bank listed 178 government officials in this record.
Efforts to recover assets
On November 14, 1979, ten days after Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy, President Jimmy Carter declared a state of emergency in U.S.–Iran relations and froze assets belonging to the Iranian government, organizations, and companies held in U.S. banks. Since then, every year, U.S. presidents have signed orders to block Iranian assets.
Eventually, in January 1981, Iran and the U.S. reached an agreement known as the Algiers Accords, obligating Washington to release frozen Iranian assets. However, the U.S. only partially fulfilled this obligation.
According to a June report by Iran’s Parliamentary Research Commission, Iran’s U.S. holdings included diplomatic properties, cash, military and non-military assets. Disputes arose between the two countries during the implementation of the Algiers Accords, and Iran–U.S. arbitration at The Hague was established to resolve these issues. Some disputes remain unresolved.
The Algiers Accords required the U.S. to restore Iran’s financial status to its pre-November 14, 1979 state and release all blocked assets, including cash, military equipment, diplomatic properties, and the Shah’s assets. However, Iran asserts that the U.S. violated the accords and has not returned Iran’s diplomatic and consular properties.
In 1994, the U.S. proposed a settlement to return assets and diplomatic properties. Although an agreement was reached to examine the matter outside arbitration, it was discovered that the U.S. had leased Iranian buildings to countries like Romania and Turkey. Negotiations from March 1997 ultimately failed.
Over 33 years since the revolution, despite repeated international lawsuits for the return of stolen Iranian assets held by the Pahlavi family, these efforts have yet to succeed. Nonetheless, legal claims must continue, and Iran’s diplomatic and judicial authorities must pursue all available means.
