Odd Lots · Thursday, July 30, 2026
Religious foundations called 'bonyads' and 'invisible ports' exemplify how Iran's state intermingles with its economy. Bonyads, established after the revolution, gained immense power, allowing them to import goods without supervision, as seen with one foundation head's actions regarding wheelchairs. This evolved into 'invisible ports' controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, facilitating unchecked imports and trade.
“Okay. So again, these religious religious foundations there were launched at the beginning of the revolution and they're very interesting. So like one of them was this massive foundation that was established to distribute the wealth among the poor, and it seemed quite a noble cause.”
“But the head of foundation, he was an MP at that time, member of the parliament, so he went to the parliament and paused to allow the foundation to import anything they want without any government supervision.”
“So we see that these foundations and the revolutionary guards, they had massive power to import anything they wanted without audit and without taxation, and this character of the book. Decades later, he goes to southern ports of Iran, and he saw a dedicated port that belonged to the Revolutionary Guards and they could import anything they wanted without any supervision of the God.”