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Iranian Tycoon with Cypriot Passport: What the FT Revelations Show

Published January 27, 2026, 07:12
Iranian Tycoon with Cypriot Passport: What the FT Revelations Show

An Iranian businessman, Ali Ansari, who has been sanctioned in the United Kingdom as an alleged financier of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is reported to have invested hundreds of millions of euros in a portfolio of properties across continental Europe. The Ansari family is linked to the Iranian Ayandeh Bank. Following the bank's collapse last month, British authorities imposed sanctions on Ansari and froze his assets in London. The indictment describes Ansari as a “corrupt Iranian banker and businessman” and accuses him of funding a body accused of the deaths of thousands of protesters in Iran. According to revelations by the Financial Times, Ansari has managed to acquire businesses and luxury properties in a number of European countries in recent years through a complex network of offshore companies he allegedly controls. Ansari is reported to hold three passports – from Iran, Cyprus, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Despite the developments, his name is not currently on the European Union's sanctions list. As FT notes, his case demonstrates how “tycoons linked to the Iranian regime have managed to acquire significant assets despite extensive efforts to exclude them from Western economies.” He allegedly controls a 164-room hotel in Mallorca, the Steigenberger Hotel & Resort Camp de Mar, and has a stake in the Schlosshotel Kitzbühel, a luxury ski resort in the Austrian Alps. In Germany, he is reportedly linked to two hotels – the Hilton Frankfurt City Centre and the Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch – as well as the Bero Oberhausen shopping centre.