Trump's Business Partner and Allegations of His 'Family Connections' to Money Laundering for the IRGC

The Associated Press reports that the family of a business partner of Donald Trump, the only remaining candidate in the Republican Party for the presidential election in November, is embroiled in allegations of money laundering for the Islamic Republic of Iran. On Saturday, June 15, the Associated Press wrote that the father of Anar Mohammadov, a former business partner of Donald Trump, is under suspicion of money laundering for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. According to the report, Donald Trump initiated a major construction project in Baku in partnership with Anar Mohammadov six months before starting his election campaign. Anar Mohammadov's father, Ziya Mohammadov, has served as the Minister of Transport and Communications of Azerbaijan, and American officials refer to him as 'a person known for administrative corruption.' According to the report, American officials have been monitoring Ziya Mohammadov for some time due to his opaque financial connections with the IRGC. The Associated Press reported that a year and a half after the joint project between Donald Trump and Anar Mohammadov began, and just a few weeks after Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump's daughter, announced in a video the imminent completion of the construction project in Baku, this video and other connections of Trump with this project were removed from the internet. Alan Garten, Donald Trump's financial advisor, told the Associated Press that the project was halted for economic reasons. Meanwhile, Garten stated that Trump's economic cartel 'carefully' selects his partners, but in the case of Anar Mohammadov, the allegations against his father were not investigated because Ziya Mohammadov was not part of this project, and the cartel was unaware of these allegations. However, according to Haaretz, experts in Azerbaijan have stated that there was no doubt that Anar Mohammadov was his father's clear representative in financial matters and transactions, and the success of his businesses was due to his father's position. According to the report, Anar Mohammadov has always benefited from major state projects in Azerbaijan due to his father's reputation, and the taxi and bus fleets of Azerbaijan are almost under his financial control. Anar Mohammadov, 35, has registered companies in various fields of construction, banking, communications, and production since 2000 when he was 19 years old, with the success of all of them attributed to his father's status in the country. The Associated Press noted that in documents and telegrams from American diplomats, Ziya Mohammadov is mentioned as someone who has been connected with Kamal Darvish, a fixer known for his ties to the IRGC. According to the report, in a hotel construction project in Baku, while the hotel was still incomplete, Mamedov deposited a relatively good income from this hotel into Trump's account. The hotel, which was never opened, generated between $2.5 million and $2.8 million in revenue for Trump, which he reported in his tax filings. The Associated Press wrote that Donald Trump continuously claims in his election campaign that he uses 'the best financial experts' and 'the most reliable figures' in his affairs, which is why he has amassed such wealth, and he asserts that if he becomes president, he will continue this approach. However, according to the Associated Press, it seems that sometimes Mr. Trump and his managers have 'overlooked' some details about the people he chooses to work with, and for example, they have not investigated whether these individuals have had suspicious and ambiguous activities, whether they have been under suspicion and trial, and whether these individuals have exaggerated their life and economic activity records. According to this news agency, the importance of selecting individuals is heightened at this moment when Trump is looking to appoint a figure for the vice presidential nomination, and if he wins the election, at least 3,600 party positions will need to be carefully selected for his government officials. Eric Trump, one of Mr. Trump's sons, recently stated in an interview that his father's determination to run for president was strengthened after the nuclear deal with Iran because he is extremely angry about this agreement. According to Haaretz, Trump stated at an AIPAC meeting two months ago that his 'number one priority' is to overturn the 'disastrous agreement with Iran' to 'protect Israel.'