Faramarz's Latest Rambling

My younger brother just returned from Iran.  He took a 2.5 week trip there with his new girl friend.  This was his first and only trip since he left Iran at age 7.

His new girl friend's dad is the largest distributor of pharmacutical precursors in Iran so you can imagine he is not hurting for money.  My little bro had taken close to 300 photos from a party he attended in a house (well more lilke a mansion) in N. Tehran. First of all, the list of cars in the huge drive way of this house was astonishing.  Bentley Continental, Benz S65 AMG, BMW M6 convertible, BMW X5, Lexus GX470 and bunch of less expensive BMWs and Benzes.  No Peykans or Daewoos in sight.

Then there were pictures of the insides of the house, the furniture and 60" LCD TVs in practically every freaking room.  Men wearing watches costing tens of thousands of dollars and women wearing diamonds the size of hazelnuts.  The bling factor was higher than a rapper's convention in Los Angeles.

The most amazing thing about this party howeverwas not the toys men drove or the jewels the women sported.  It was the fact that half these people owned 10, 15 or 25 story highrises lock stock and barrel.  That is right; one guy owning 60 or more condos in one building.

How is this possible?  Its apparently simple.  Corruption and bribery the level and extent of which makes the thievery in Shah era look like childs play.  One of the guests who needed "permits" to build a  couple borjes near or on the way to darband and one in Karaj had reportedly done the following for the bastards in charge:

1) Bougth them homes in Tehran  2)  Bougth condos for their children in London as well as Kuala Lumpur and Montreal 3) Obtained "paziresh" from  universities in Canada and the U.K. for their children and finally deposited 100,000+ in Dollars and Euros in foreigh bank accounts under the name of their children. In one case,  300000 Canadian dollars in Royal Bank of Canada in Vancouver; for a 20 year old girl.

The basic rule of thumb for bribes according to my brother's soon to be father-in-law is 15-30%.  So, if you are to profit $1000,000 from a project, figure on pre spending $150,000-300,000 on bribes before your project starts.  The better your connection to the IRI elements, the closer you are to 15%.  But no less.  This is why there is so much inflation in Iran.  The 5% or so super rich are spending so much money on everything that store owners price things for them.  Not the general public.  Thats why now, raw materials for a party for 25 people is going to cost you 100-150000 tomans.  Keep in mind a government worker in an office makes 500000 tomans per month.

I was barely a teenager when I left Iran so I can't claim I know how much bribe was paid to grease the wheels during the time of the Shah.  But I am pretty sure it was less than 15 or 30%.

Am I wrong?