UANI Full-Page Ad in Financial Times Warns Investors of Serious Iran Business Risks

March 14, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2016
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UANI Full-Page Ad in Financial Times Warns Investors of Serious Iran Business Risks 


New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) published a full-page ad in Wednesday's UK edition of the Financial Times (FT), the same day the newspaper hosted an Iran investment event in London.

Directed to participants of the FT Iran Summit, the UANI ad posed the question, "Is Iran Worth The Risk?" The ad concludes with this answer: "No. Your employees' lives and your company's reputation are not worth the risk of doing business with the Ayatollah." As evidence, UANI's "Iran Business Risk Matrix" details 10 serious risks associated with doing business in Iran: 

The Iran Business Matrix 
IRGC Front Company Risk
Firms that go into Iran will inevitably do business with Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) front companies.		 Violations of Int'l Laws & Treaties Risk
Iran continues to violate international law, U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the JCPOA including as recently as November 21, 2015, when Iran tested an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. 
Kidnap & Arrest Risk
International businesses cannot guarantee that their employees and contractors will not be arbitrarily arrested, detained and imprisoned. 		 Hacking & Cybersecurity Risk
Businesses will be targets of hacking by Iranian operatives, risking disclosure of proprietary and confidential information about the company, its employees (and their friends and family), and client information.
"Blood on Hands" / Terror Risks
Doing business in Iran will enable even more human rights violations. Iran is the leading state sponsor of terror (Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi rebels).		 Reputational Risk
Reputations will suffer when shareholders and the public learn that a company is investing in the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Revocation of JCPOA Risk
The next U.S. administration may pursue a different policy vis-à-vis Iran, resulting in the abandonment of the JCPOA and the return of sanctions.		 Insurance Risk
Companies that venture into Iran will find insurance unavailable or prohibitively expensive.
Sanctions & Regulations & Uncertainty
Companies that go into Iran will still be subject to extraterritorial secondary U.S. sanctions ($14 billion in fines since 2009 for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran).		 Country Risk
Iran still rates highly in terms of political risk, exchange rate risk, sovereign risk, and transfer risk due to its sponsorship of terror groups, human rights violations, and blatant disregard for international law.

 
In a March 8 press release, UANI warned participants and sponsors of the FT Iran Summit of the grave and extensive legal, financial and reputational risks of working with a country whose largest export is terrorism and which leads the world in the executions of its own citizens.

UANI also sent letters to leaders of firms sponsoring or participating in the Summit at the Landmark Hotel in London, including Renault, Deloitte, Dentons, Forbes & Manhattan, Fitch Ratings, and Clyde and Co, urging them to exercise extreme caution before resuming "business as usual" in Iran.

Previously, on November 9, 2015, UANI published an open letter in the Financial Times signed by dozens of prominent defense and foreign policy experts, calling on the global business community to carefully weigh the substantial continuing risks of business ties with Iran.

Click here to view UANI's full-page ad in the March 9 UK edition of the Financial Times.

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 prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons.

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