Mullah's Business in Austria: Mojtaba Khamenei's Kitzbühel Connection
While uncertainty reigns in the streets of Tehran following the violent death of Ali Khamenei on February 28, 2026, a discreet trail of money leads straight to the heart of the Tyrolean Alps. Amidst picture-postcard idyll and high-society glamour, a convoluted corporate structure is revealed that links Iran's new ruler, Mojtaba Khamenei, to one of Austria's most exclusive hotels.
The business trail of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new revolutionary leader, leads to a five-star hotel in Kitzbühel. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Iran Embassy in Russia / CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
It's a picture straight out of a picture book: the Schloss-Hotel Kitzbühel, located in the immediate vicinity of the legendary Hahnenkamm, exudes alpine elegance. 150 rooms, a 3,000-square-meter spa, and a guest list that ranges from Boris Becker to Arnold Schwarzenegger. But behind the magnificent façade of the five-star hotel lies an economic thriller that reaches into the power centers of Tehran, as the STANDARD discovered in its investigative research.
Since the death of Ali Khamenei on February 28, 2026, in the wake of US-Israeli air strikes, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been at the helm of the theocracy. While he is currently in hiding underground for fear of assassination attempts, his global financial empire is moving into the spotlight. One trail leads directly to Tyrol.
The network: From Milan via Frankfurt to Tehran
At the center of the investigation is the company “Panarea Investimento S. R. L.” based in Milan. According to the commercial register, it holds just over 20 percent of the Schloss Hotel. The trail of ownership reads like a map of concealment, because the Italian company Panarea belongs to German ETD GmbH in Frankfurt am Main. The sole owner of the Frankfurt-based company is Ali Ansari.
Ansari is no stranger, as Bloomberg reports. He is considered the former head of the collapsed Iranian Ayandeh Bank and holds citizenship of Iran, Cyprus, and the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis. But his most important role is an unofficial one: experts refer to him as Mojtaba Khamenei's “money man.”
A €400 million empire in his sights
The hotel in Kitzbühel is just one piece of a much bigger picture. According to reports in the Financial Times and Bloomberg, Ansari controls a real estate portfolio worth around €400 million as a front man for Khamenei junior. This includes luxury hotels in Germany and Mallorca, apartments in London with their own servants' quarters, and a villa in Dubai.
The expulsion and the “hostile takeover”
In Kitzbühel, the structure began to crumble in 2020, as reported by Der Standard. At that time, the Panarea Group began systematically buying up shares from the dozens of small co-owners of the hotel. The goal was apparently to gain an absolute majority – a “hostile takeover,” as hotel representatives call it today.
But management reacted. When reports emerged in 2022 about Ansari's connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the militia that brutally suppressed uprisings in Iran – the other shareholders pulled the plug. In February 2023, Panarea was excluded from the circle of shareholders on suspicion of money laundering and proximity to sanctioned regimes.
Legal tug-of-war before the Supreme Court
Ansari is now suing over this expulsion, as reported by Der Standard. After proceedings began in Tyrol, the case is now before the Supreme Court (OGH) in Vienna. A final decision is still pending, but the economic consequences are already being felt. The Booking.com platform has temporarily removed the hotel from its program after the connection to the Iranian regime became public.
Ansari's lawyer, Roger Gherson, vehemently denies any connection to the Revolutionary Guard Corps or the Khamenei family in the media. There are plans to challenge the British sanctions against Ansari.