The Corruption of Jahangiri and Family (Part Two)

Jahangiri brothers have significantly abused their positions within the structure of the Islamic Republic: Ishaq Jahangiri is accused of administrative corruption, while Mehdi Jahangiri is accused of both administrative and economic corruption.

Mehdi Jahangiri, Ishaq Jahangiri’s brother, is a well-known figure in the economic and political scenes of the Islamic Republic in Iran.

In 2009, Mehdi Jahangiri founded the private investment company for Cultural Heritage and Tourism of Iran (Samga), which is the parent company and executive arm of the Tourism Financial Group in the fields of tourism and hospitality.

Samga, ostensibly a private company, is in fact a government entity that, under an agreement, took on the responsibility of organizing cultural heritage under the guise of implementing Article 44 of the Constitution and with orders from Khamenei.

As a government-sponsored entity, Semga received the right to use 31,000 square meters of land at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran for 25 years and to construct the airport hotel complex without legal formalities and tenders.

On November 7, 2020, a 20,000-billion-Toman agreement was signed between the Semga group and the Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters, affiliated with the IRGC, for the development of the Bonab Steel Complex.

The signing of this contract is significant because Mehdi Jahangiri had been arrested by the Kerman IRGC in October 2017 on charges of economic disruption and was released on bail in March of the same year.

Mehdi Jahangiri, the younger brother of Ishaq Jahangiri, was finally sentenced in February 2021 to only four years in prison and a fine for professional currency smuggling and acquiring illicit assets.

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