Pompeo accuses Iranian Supreme Leader of profiting from $95 billion hedge fund
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a scathing speech on Iran's leadership Sunday, accusing Tehran's ruling ayatollahs of spreading violence across the Middle East and lining their own pockets with ill-gotten gains at the expense of ordinary Iranians.
"The ideologues who forcibly came to power in 1979 and remain in power today are driven by a desire to conform all of Iranian society to the tenants of the Islamic Revolution. The regime is also committed to spreading the Revolution to other countries, by force if necessary," said Pompeo during a highly anticipated address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Southern California is home to a significant portion of the Iranian diaspora living in the United States. Many of them fled Iran after the revolution that brought Iran's ayatollahs to power.
"To the regime, prosperity, security, and freedom for the Iranian people are acceptable casualties in the march to fulfill the Revolution," said Pompeo.
The secretary of state and former CIA director accused several members of Iran's leadership, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, of participating in widespread corruption.
Khamenei, Pompeo alleged, maintains a personal off-the-books hedge fund worth $95 billion, that is untaxed and used as a "slush fund" by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC). The IRGC is a branch of the country's armed with influence over practically every aspect of Iranian life.
"The level of corruption and wealth among regime leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government," Pompeo said.
"These hypocritical holy men have devised all kinds of crooked schemes to become some of the wealthiest men on Earth while their people suffer."
The speech was briefly interrupted by protesters shouting "think about the children," likely a reference to US President Donald Trump's immigration policies that have led to children being separated by their family at the border.
Once they were done, Pompeo said "if there was only so much freedom of speech in Iran."
A handful of prominent Iranian-Americans were in the audience, including Washington Post columnist and former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian.
Rezaian spent months in Iranian detention on what many believed were spurious charges of spying on behalf of the United States.
Also in attendance for the speech, entitled "Supporting Iranian Voices," was Makan Delrahim, a US assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's antitrust division. Delrahim came to the United States from Iran at 10 years old.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/22/politics/pompeo-iran-speech-intl/index.html
