Risky Business: At First Iran Investment Summit in Singapore, a Parade of Projects Tied to Sanctioned Banks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2016
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Risky Business: At First Iran Investment Summit in Singapore, a Parade of Projects Tied to Sanctioned Banks

Business Risks Loom Large; Leader of Iranian delegation heads sanctioned Central Bank

New York, NY - Billed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for investors, tomorrow's first Iran Investment Summit in Singapore faces a chorus of criticism from a group of leading former diplomats and lawmakers.

Their message: Business risks abound in Iran, a country where corruption is rampant and a sanctioned terrorist organization--the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)--wields enormous economic power over the very sectors being shopped at the summit: oil and gas, petrochemicals, and infrastructure.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has been at the forefront of a campaign to warn more than 500 global companies about the risks of doing business in Iran.

The Singapore summit has been endorsed by the Iranian government and will showcase a variety of investment prospects, including projects tied to Iranian entities whose property remains blocked in the United States.  One such prospect appears to be the Fajr Kerman Petrochemical Complex, which is tied to Bank Pasargad, Iran's largest private bank. The bank had been sanctioned by the Treasury Department as part of a wider crackdown on "front companies, ships and banks that are part of the Government of Iran."  Its property remains blocked by the United States government.  The Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, located in Kerman, also appears to be a featured project.  It is run by the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO).  Sarcheshmeh is owned by the state-controlled conglomerate Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), whose property is also blocked in the United States.  Iran's Central Bank Governor is leading the delegation from Tehran, and the Central Bank's property is similarly blocked in the United States.

"For investors in Singapore who are contemplating these so-called financial opportunities, we offer this advice: Any international company doing business in Iran could find itself inadvertently supporting terrorism--from Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.  The legal, reputational, and financial risks loom large." said Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran.

UANI is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group founded in 2008 by Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and Middle East Expert Dennis Ross, that seeks to heighten awareness of the danger the Iranian regime poses to the world.

Media interested in speaking with Ambassador Wallace, please contact:[email protected]

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