Hossein Shariatmadari’s rare admission in Kayhan highlights the regime’s internal power struggle amid collapsing economy and widening public anger
In a rare public acknowledgment of large-scale corruption within Iran’s ruling system, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of Kayhan and the main mouthpiece of Ali Khamenei, admitted that over $90 billion in export revenues have not been returned to the country’s central bank.
In a commentary published on October 25, Shariatmadari sharply criticized “private, state, and quasi-state companies” for refusing to repatriate foreign currency earned through exports, calling it a “shameful act” equivalent to “plundering national wealth.”
While presented as an attack on corrupt officials, the article reflects a deeper power struggle within the regime, as Khamenei’s loyalist media seeks to deflect blame for Iran’s worsening economic collapse away from the Supreme Leader and his economic institutions.
Admission of a $90 Billion Economic Black Hole
According to Shariatmadari’s column, based on what he described as “credible reports,” more than $90 billion in export earnings that should have been returned to Iran’s Central Bank remain unaccounted for — nearly twice the country’s annual public budget.
He wrote that “among those refusing to return export currency are thousands of individuals, private companies, state-owned firms, and, as the Leader himself says, quasi-state entities.”
This admission implicitly exposes the vast network of corruption within institutions under Khamenei’s control, including those tied to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), large bonyads (religious foundations), and other semi-state conglomerates that dominate Iran’s economy.
Despite the gravity of his revelations, Shariatmadari did not name a single culprit, instead calling on government bodies, parliament, the judiciary, and intelligence services to act — institutions that all operate under Khamenei’s direct supervision.
Shifting Blame Amid Public Discontent
Shariatmadari’s remarks come as the Iranian currency continues its sharp decline, fueling runaway inflation and deepening public anger over living costs. He accused exporters of worsening people’s hardships by creating an “artificial shortage” of foreign currency, which in turn drives up prices of basic goods.
“The real meaning of withholding export currency,” he wrote, “is the looting of national wealth and the direct cause of soaring prices that crush low-income citizens.”
Observers note that this sudden criticism from Kayhan serves a political purpose: to insulate Khamenei from responsibility while scapegoating rival factions, businessmen, and officials associated with President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration and other regime circles.
For years, Kayhan and other hardline outlets have defended the same economic networks they now accuse of corruption. Many of the so-called “quasi-state companies” are controlled by the IRGC’s economic arms, which manage billions of dollars in oil, petrochemical, and construction revenues outside state oversight.
Systemic Corruption Rooted in Khamenei’s Economic Empire
While Shariatmadari portrays the issue as one of individual greed, the failure to repatriate export revenues reflects the structural corruption at the heart of Iran’s regime. The opaque system of dual exchange rates, preferential access to subsidized energy, and tax exemptions for regime-linked companies has long allowed elites to profit while ordinary citizens face soaring poverty.
Economists inside and outside Iran have warned that such practices are a form of institutionalized embezzlement, draining resources from the public sector and worsening the country’s chronic currency instability.
Shariatmadari’s acknowledgment of a $90 billion shortfall may therefore mark less a reformist gesture than an internal warning shot — an attempt by Khamenei’s camp to reassert control over a collapsing economic system amid growing factional tension and public outrage.
Conclusion
The Kayhan editor’s comments inadvertently underscore what Iranian citizens have long known: the regime’s economic corruption runs from top to bottom. While Shariatmadari demands accountability from officials, the root cause of Iran’s crisis lies in the unaccountable power structure built around Khamenei himself — a system that enables the same corruption he now pretends to denounce.
