This post is a little afield of the sorts of things we normally blog about, but it does get to our international audience, and it does get into what to do when your assets abroad get seized.
We heard an interview with an Iranian businessman, and he indicated that he’d like to be compensated for his businesses and real estate that the Mullahs seized some years ago, and it appears there are a lot of other Iranian/American businesses in the same boat. No one in the US government, i.e., in the federal courts, has offered to hear his claims and adjudicate them.
This businessman indicated that he thought the US Government should head and adjudicate all of the claims of the Iranians or others who have had assets of any kind seized by the mullahs, and any assets distributed to these people for the Mullahs get any money.
It seems to us that these claims should be heard somewhere (I wouldn’t trust a special master or adjudicator appointed by anyone in the Obama administration), before any of the $150 billion that we are holding up giving back to the Iranian government is in the form of assets (the media and our government have been delightfully imprecise on this point).
If the Wizards of Washington and the State Department had any cojones, it would make sense to tell the Iranians that we’re going to sell their assets to pay unliquidated claims that various parties in this country have against their country.
I imagine, if our present government geniuses can figure out a way to hang on to the assets a bit longer, President Trump will do a good negotiation.