Vienna lawyer aided Iran officials' visas, sanctions evasion - Der Standard
A prominent Iranian-Austrian lawyer aided a Vienna-based firm in securing special visas for senior Iranian officials and attempting to bypass sanctions on Tehran, an Austrian daily reported on Thursday.
According to Der Standard’s report citing business documents, the company Blue River Holding GmbH also pursued a plan to export luxury cars to Iran.
“The documents obtained indicate that (Ramin) Mirfakhrai acts or acted as a confidant of a clique of Viennese citizens of Iranian descent. He likely maintains extremely close ties to the internationally isolated Iranian regime,” wrote Der Standard.
Contacted by Der Standard, Mirfakhrai denied any wrongdoing.
“I have not conducted or been involved in any legally or morally questionable transactions,” he said. Mirfakhrai acknowledged he had worked for Blue River in the past but said he no longer has ties to the company.
Mirfakhrai first gained public attention in 2019 as the initiator of the so-called Ibiza video, a secretly recorded meeting on the Spanish resort island which allegedly exposed corruption within the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), leading to the downfall of Austria's coalition government.
His commissioning of the covert filming, Mirfakhrai said at the time, was a civic gesture aimed at exposing abuses of power.
Der Standard's investigation suggested that at the same time Mirfakhrai was involved in business dealings with individuals connected to Iran’s economic and political establishment.
One of these ventures was Blue River Holding, which held a license from Spar International, based in Amsterdam, to operate Spar supermarkets in Iran.
The company is also suspected of facilitating visa access for high-ranking Iranian officials and exploring ways to set up a payment system between Iran and Europe that could circumvent international sanctions.
Documents reviewed by Der Standard show that in 2021, Blue River sought a €10 million loan to fund its Iran-related projects.
A controversial luxury car deal
In late 2021, Blue River attempted another project—this time involving the export of luxury cars to Iran.
The company sought to establish a business partnership between Bentley and the Iranian conglomerate Zar Group, a Tehran-based company best known for food production but increasingly expanding into other sectors.
Zar Group's CEO, Morteza Soltani, has been publicly associated with Iran’s leadership, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. His son, Arash Soltani, was honored by the Basij militia, a paramilitary force linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as a so-called Top Jihad Manager in late 2023.
