The Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order (EIKO;Treasury Targets Assets of Iranian Leadership | US Department of the Treasury. Press Center | 6/4/2013U.S. blacklists global network of Iranian 'front' companies | Reuters | 4 June 2013 |retrieved 22 November 2016 , Setâd-e Ejrây-ye Farmân-e Emâm), also known as the Executive Headquarters of Imam's Directive or simply Setad, is a parastatal organization in the Islamic Republic of Iran, under direct control of the Supreme Leader of Iran. It was created from thousands of properties confiscated in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Its holdings include large amounts of real estate and 37 companies, covering nearly every sector of Iranian industry, including finance, oil, and telecommunications.
While its accounts are secret even to the Iranian parliament, a 2013 estimate by Reuters news agency put the total value of Setad's holdings at $95 billion, made up of about $52 billion in real estate and $43 billion in corporate holdings. In 2013, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on the organization and some of its corporate holdings, referring to it as "a massive network of front companies hiding assets on behalf of ... Iran's leadership."
History The organization was launched on April 26, 1989, when the first Supreme Leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered his aides to manage, maintain or sell properties confiscated or supposedly abandoned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The order called for the implementation of Article 49 of Constitution of Iran under which the government had the right to confiscate all wealth accumulated through illegal means, restore it to its "legitimate owners"; and if those owners could not be identified, entrust it "to the public treasury".
Habibollah Asgaroladi, Mehdi Karroubi and Hassan Sane'i were appointed تعیین نمایندگان برای رسیدگی به وجوه و اموال مجهول المالک و... |imam-khomeini.ir |6 اردیبهشت 1368 / 19 رمضان 1409 |accessed 21 November 2016 to take over all "sales, servicing and managing" of assets of unknown ownership. The assets were to go to seven bonyads and charities specified by Khomeini, such as the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, State Welfare Organization of Iran. The money would be used to aid "families of the martyrs, veterans, the missing, prisoners of war and the downtrodden." According to Reuters, one of the three co-founders of Setad, Mehdi Karoubi, wrote in 2009 that the organization was intended "to operate for no more than two years".
Khomeini died about a month later. The organization did not disband but developed over the next two decades into a vast parastatal known as the Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam - Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam. According to Reuters, the organization has engaged in the systematic seizure of thousands of properties belonging to ordinary Iranians, religious minorities, business people and Iranians living abroad.
In 2006, as the United Nations and Western powers began to impose increasingly harsh economic sanctions on Iran, the task force began studying how some developing economies managed to grow so rapidly. The task force concluded that what Iran lacked and needed were conglomerates on par with South Korea, Japan, Brazil, and the United States.
In 2013, as the West pressured Iran's economy with sanctions related to its nuclear development program, the headquarters' extensive economic operations provided the Islamic Republic with an independent source of revenue.
Leadership Mohammad Shariatmadari was appointed as the leader of Setad by order of Ali Khamenei in 1994. Iranians who have served in the running or overseeing of Setad include Mohammad Javad Iravani, who took over as head of Setad in 1997, and Mohammad Mokhber, who became the CEO in 2007. Hossein-Ali Nayyeri (until 2023) and Kazem Najafi Elmi (until 2014) were members of the Board of Trustees of Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order. In 2009, Mohammad Saeedikia, a former Iranian minister of housing and urban development, was named chairman of the Setad subsidiary Tadbir Construction Development Group. Aref Norozi served on the board of Tadbir Investment and was head of Setad's real-estate division. From 2013, Ali Ashraf Afkhami was the head of the Tadbir Economic Development Group. Mohammad Reyshahri, a former intelligence minister, was chairman of Rey Investment Co, appointed by Khamenei.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei... A Multi-Billionaire And BMW Car Dealer? | PALASH GHOSH |International Business Times |05/03/13 |retrieved 22 November 2016
In 2021, the Board of Trustees of the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order elected Aref Norouzi as head of the executive staff.Aref Norouzi became the head of the executive staff of Imam Khomeini's order Retrieved 26 April 2021
The current head is Parviz Fattah.
Organization Setad consists of two main foundations: the Barakat Foundation that "has the duty of eliminating poverty and empowering poor communities" and Tadbir Economic Development Group to "set up an investment management firm".
Barakat Foundation
On 11 December 2007, based on the sentence of the second Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, "I'm concerned about solving problems of the deprived classes of the society. For instance, solve problems of 1000 villages completely. How good would it be if 1000 points of the country are solved or 1000 schools are built in the country", the Barakat Foundation has been established to solve the problems of in needed people and make habitable the deprived region where poor people live.
The Mechanism of Barakat Foundation is summarized in eight steps. First, the region to implement the Poverty Reduction Project is selected. Then, by choosing the consultant (or experts) and holding meetings, studies on the status of capacities of development at the target area and on the basis of the formulation and implementation of the plan, it is considered as the agenda. After completing the establishment mechanism for implementing the plan and ways for Financing support and education steps, the project begins to operate economically. After the evaluation and documentation of the process of carrying out the project, the Barakat Foundation will be removed from the implementation process. Finally, the project is donated to people for economic activity.
This process was called Sunshine, in order to reduce poverty through the participation of local communities. The Foundation has mainly concentrated on the entrepreneurship of needy people.
Tadbir Economic Development Group Ten years after establishing EIKO, Tadbir Economic Development Group was founded as the economic group of EIKO. Now it is a stockholder of many oil and non-oil companies.
Services EIKO (also known as Setad) has invested 84 trillion Rials in alleviating poverty since December 2007. The foundation has created 322 economic entrepreneurship projects, providing job opportunities for 198,000 people.
It has built 1,030 schools, with 8,000 classrooms (setting up a contract to construct 1,357 schools) in the deprived regions has turned Setad as an organization to prepare the educational facility for the poor student. Construction home for low-income (11,000 homes) and investing in 110 civil infrastructure projects included water and power supply, road construction, building of cultural and religious accommodation in poor regions of the country (800 Mosques, Prayer Rooms (Mosalla), and residence for religious teachers in remote rural regions, and also constructed centers for religious educations are other efforts of the Barakat Foundation.
It has established 4 centers for Cancer Recognition & Treatment, along with 11 hospitals, and 153 Health Care Centers in poor regions around the country, Cure the Infertility of young and treat 273 young couples to elimination the infertility are the important actions of Setad to prepare cure services. Also, this organization tries to fight deforestation in Iran, especially in southern provinces like Khuzestan Province, Ilam Province and gardens and Urban Green Space.
During the 2019 Iran floods, in order to help to flood-stricken people, EIKO prepared essential equipment for flood-stricken people and furnished facilities (fridges, washing machines, carpets, and other necessary elements) for 15,000 families. It provided 4,000 cattle to replace 9,000 killed by the flood, for families living in villages. Some temporary clinics have been established to cure wounded and give medicine. The Barakat Foundation performed most of aids as the representative of EIKO. In other hands, the organization ensured, EIKO will be able to "provide some 3,000 job opportunities" for citizens.
The polypill, drugs to lower blood pressure, is produced in Iran by the support of EIKO was designed 14 years ago and called "PolyIran". According to the study was conducted by doctors from Tehran University, the University of Birmingham in Britain and other institutions and published by The Lancet, it worked quite well in a new study, slashing the rate of heart attacks by more than half among those who regularly took the pills. The pill in the study, which involved the participation of 6,800 rural villagers aged 50 to 75 in Iran, contained a cholesterol-lowering statin, two blood-pressure drugs and a low-dose aspirin.
"Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order" has also done other services for needy people, such as: the distribution of 2,000 dowries and 1,000 stationery packages for poor people, giving 3,000 wheelchairs to needy disabled individuals,3000 wheelchairs ... by Bonyade-Ehsane-Barakat tabnak.ir Retrieved 29 August 2020 preparing 2,000 food packages for Nikshahr students who were involved in nutritional problems, the establishment of "Ehsan Sports places" in deprived areas, and so on.Construction of rural sports houses in deprived areas of the country eghtesadnews.com Retrieved 29 August 2020
Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order and the Barakat Foundation (in cooperation with the Ministry of Health) have pursued/implemented the issue of Telehealth. According to the minister of Health, Saeed Namaki: "... This great scientific work helps us in order to utilize a tool called "telemedicine" in these (far) areas of the country. This new approach (telemedicine) allows us to increase productivity in Islamic Republic of Iran's specialized manpower and have health justice in the farthest areas of Iran. He also added, "it began in the farthest and most deprived parts of the country."Minister of Health: Corona should not hit us; telemedicine tabnak.ir 14 September 2020Minister of Health, corona, telemedicine. ilna Retrieved 14 September 2020
COVID-19 pandemic According to the Tasnim news agency, Southwest Asia's largest factory producing face masks in Iran was opened by Mohammad Mokhber, director of the Headquarters for Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order in April 2020. The factory is able to "produce 4 million masks per month". According to the report of EIKO's officials, the EIKO has provided several medical facilities to fight with the coronavirus pandemic in Iran, including " 25 million three-layered and N95 masks, launching a production line of medical masks, production of Iranian test kit for coronavirus infection, research on the medicine of the disease, launching the 4030 phone line with the help of 2,200 doctors and paramedics for answering people's questions about coronavirus, making oxygen concentrator (with producing 50 machines every day), production of 400,000 liters of disinfectant gel".