"Ramsay Hodgson and Anna Gross in London
Published 18 HOURS AGO
A donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has a senior role at a Dubai-based company that until 2016 had business ties to a since-sanctioned Iranian conglomerate with deep links to the Islamic republic’s government.
John Simpson, a church warden and conveyancer, is the registered manager and shareholder of Dubai-based Orico General Trading LLC, according to documents seen by the FT.
Simpson is also listed publicly as the person with significant control of Interior Architecture Landscape Limited (IAL Ltd), a UK company that donated £200,000 to Reform last year and whose clients include Iranian billionaire Sasan Ghandehari and his family.
French legal documents released last month described Orico as a subsidiary of Iranian company Omran Razavi International Co. The Iranian group is majority owned by the Astan Quds Razavi religious foundation, a leading financial conglomerate in Iran that is under US sanctions.
Three months after being set up in Dubai in June 2012, Orico agreed to supply Omran Razavi with goods and services and a year later signed a €145mn deal as part of a contract with the state-owned Telecommunications Infrastructure Company of Iran (TIC), according to a 2020 arbitration request.
Orico did not comment, but a person close to Orico said Omran Razavi was a joint-venture vehicle between a foreign investor and Astan Quds Razavi (AQR). They declined to answer questions about whether the foreign investor was Sasan Ghandehari."
FT.com
Published 18 HOURS AGO
A donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has a senior role at a Dubai-based company that until 2016 had business ties to a since-sanctioned Iranian conglomerate with deep links to the Islamic republic’s government.
John Simpson, a church warden and conveyancer, is the registered manager and shareholder of Dubai-based Orico General Trading LLC, according to documents seen by the FT.
Simpson is also listed publicly as the person with significant control of Interior Architecture Landscape Limited (IAL Ltd), a UK company that donated £200,000 to Reform last year and whose clients include Iranian billionaire Sasan Ghandehari and his family.
French legal documents released last month described Orico as a subsidiary of Iranian company Omran Razavi International Co. The Iranian group is majority owned by the Astan Quds Razavi religious foundation, a leading financial conglomerate in Iran that is under US sanctions.
Three months after being set up in Dubai in June 2012, Orico agreed to supply Omran Razavi with goods and services and a year later signed a €145mn deal as part of a contract with the state-owned Telecommunications Infrastructure Company of Iran (TIC), according to a 2020 arbitration request.
Orico did not comment, but a person close to Orico said Omran Razavi was a joint-venture vehicle between a foreign investor and Astan Quds Razavi (AQR). They declined to answer questions about whether the foreign investor was Sasan Ghandehari."
FT.com
