Wednesday, September 18, 2013

U.S. to Seize Manhattan Skyscraper "Secretly" Owned by Iran

CNN reports:
The U.S. government is set to seize a Manhattan skyscraper that prosecutors say is secretly owned and controlled by the Iranian government.

The 36-story tower is located on Fifth Avenue in the heart of New York City, adjacent to Rockefeller Center, and is home to a number of corporate tenants. Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said Tuesday that the seizure and sale of the property would be the government's largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture.

 A federal judge authorized the seizure in a ruling this week, finding that the building's owners had violated federal money laundering laws and sanctions against Iran.

The building was constructed in the 1970's by a non-profit organization operated by the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown at the end of that decade.

The building is located at 650 Fifth Ave and has quite an infamous past.

 Many floors in the building, in the1980's, were leased to Marc Rich, before he hightailed it to Switzerland. The Rich offices were spectacular.

After Rich left, Ivan Boesky took over Rich's space, before he was arrested in the Rudy Giuliani attack on Michael Milken's Wall Street crew.

Most recently, Joe Biden's brother, and also his son, have been conducting some peculiar business out of the 17th floor of the building.

It's hard to believe that this building was "secretly"owned by Iran. From what I understand the building managers never hid their allegiance to the government of Iran. They had huge posters of the Ayatollah hanging in their offices.

Although the building was built for the Shah of Iran, he died before he had a chance to occupy it. His office space in the building was to be spectacular. I one had the opportunity to visit the space (I believe it was the 7th floor). It had an outside patio that was the size of a football field. Dictators live very different than  you and me.

2 comments:

  1. Well, well, this is certain to trigger a boom from foreign investors(NOT)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe they could arrange for a jetliner to crash into it, they might know some blokes......

    ReplyDelete