The Risk Report
Volume 2 Number 4 (July-August 1996)
German officials tell the Risk Report that Iran is increasingly using Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to obtain high technology, particularly electronic `equipment. They say that Iranians operating in Dubai have created a number of front companies, which exist only in the form of mailing addresses.
In a confidential letter to German industry, the Economics Ministry identifies the following Tehran-based organizations as active in Dubai:
- STATE PURCHASING ORGANIZATION (SPO): SPO buys equipment and technology for the Iranian military.
- BONYAD MOSTAZAFAN AND JANBAZAN FOUNDATION: This foundation makes purchases for several hundred companies in Iran and buys equipment for the Iranian nuclear weapon, chemical/biological weapon and missile programs.
The German letter says that front companies for SPO and the Bonyad Mostazafan and Janbazan Foundation act as "go-betweens." They arrange and finance the technology transfers from Dubai, but the actual goods are not transported via Dubai. These Iranian business partners in Dubai are aware of the military potential of their purchases, German officials say.
The letter from the German Economics Ministry serves as a "warning" to German exporters to be careful. It says that the most important front companies in Dubai to watch out for are subsidiaries of BONYAD MOSTAZAFAN FOUNDATION, including the following:
- MOSTAZAFAN AND JANBAZAN FOUNDATION EST.
- AL YUSUF UNIVERSAL IMPORT-EXPORT EST.
- AL YOUSUF UNIVERSAL IMPORT-EXPORT EST.
- AUIE (AL YOUSUF UNIVERSAL IMPORT-EXPORT EST.)
- COMMERCIAL COMPANY 209
- COMPANY OF M&J.