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Al-Arabia – The House of Representatives approved a draft resolution stating that the Treasury Department is required to publish a list of the assets of Iranian leaders, more specifically the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.
This comes amid congressional calls for investigations on how these resources are spent on supporting and spreading terrorism.
The US House of Representatives approved law number HR 1638 on Wednesday titled “Iranian Leadership Asset Transparency Act”. The law gained a majority vote of 289 votes for, and 135 against.
The draft resolution also needs to be approved by the Senate, and signed by the President in order to become a law.
Personal fortunes
About 70 Iranian officials have acquired a vast amount of personal wealth and are using it to support terrorist groups and militias, said Republican representative Bruce Poliquin.
He had said: “This bill will allow the world to see how the top Leadership in Iran facilitates human rights abuse through funding pilfered from the Iranian people. It will allow financial institutions to see in public form the type of assets associated with these individuals and hopefully better focus anti-money laundering efforts.”
He also stressed that senior Iranian government officials, including Iran’s supreme leader and key political and military officials, have acquired enormous wealth through dictatorship and corruption.
Unidentified origins
“As the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran has consistently violated its people’s basic human rights and has ignored United Nations sanctions against its dangerous weapons programs,” said Congressman Poliquin. “They simply cannot be trusted.”
The bill was passed by the finance committee of the House of Representatives last November, which called for the American government to reveal all the assets of Iran’s leaders and officials, and how they attained such wealth.
The law also requires the US Treasury Department to create a full report about movable and immovable property of prominent figures including the Supreme Leader of Iran, President Hassan Rowhani, members of the Council of Guardians, members of the Expediency Council and the top military leaders.
Corruption and embezzlement
The bill reaffirms that these political figures, military leaders, governmental heads and Revolutionary Guard officials in Iran have received vast amounts of wealth through corruption and embezzlement
The Borgen Project, a non-profit organization that works with US leaders to improve their response to the global poverty crisis, had released a report last November stating that poverty in Iran has reached record-breaking levels with the spread of government corruption and the dominance of ruling figures over the wealth of the country.
