Hushang Ansary
Hushang Ansary | |
---|---|
Amir-Abbas Hoveida | |
Preceded by | Khosrow Khosrovani |
Succeeded by | Amir Aslan Afshar |
Personal details | |
Born | 1927 (age 96–97) Ahvaz, Pahlavi Iran |
Political party | |
Children | Nina Ansary |
Hushang Ansary (
In 2021, he was convicted, together with his daughter Nina Ansary and others, of defrauding policyholders of Dutch Caribbean insurer ENNIA of more than 500 million dollars.[2][3]
Biography
Born in 1927 in Ahvaz, in Iran's
In 1964, he married Maryam Panahi, a friend of ambassador Abbas Aram who had many high-ranking acquaintances in the governments of the United States and Iran.[5] He served as ambassador to the United States until July 1969.[6] Then he was named as the minister of economic affairs and finance. His accomplishments during this time included assisting the Shah in lending millions of dollars in aid and grants to other countries and the signing of an agreement with U.S. State Secretary Henry Kissinger to build eight nuclear power plants in Iran.[7]
By the 1970s, the
Business and philanthropy
During his time in the Iranian government, Ansary also maintained a successful career in business. He was the director of an unstable company called Fakhre Iran, which he made profitable and sold to the government.
In recent years Ansari and Parman have come under scrutiny of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) with regard to financial misappropriations regarding an insurance company operating in the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The CBCS has stated that under shareholder Parman International B.V., in which Ansary is a majority shareholder, ENNIA Caribe Holding and ENNIA Caribe Investments had appropriated 1,5 billion Antillean guilders (approximately $838 million) from ENNIA insurance companies.[18][19] These insurance companies operate on the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten and therefore fall under the supervision of the CBCS. According to the CBCS, the appropriation took place by having the insurance companies invest in shares in another Parman subsidiary, Stewart & Stevenson Inc. When these shares were sold in 2017, although the insurance companies had held 74% of the shares and should have received $558.7 million, they only received $282.2 million and thus lost approximately $273 million. In another transaction, land at Mullet Bay (sint Maarten) was put in the books of the insurance company for 771 million guilders (just under $431 million) although according to Cushman & Wakefield, one of the largest appraisers in the world, the value is only 89 million guilders ($49 million).[19] In August 2018, after negotiations between CBCS and ENNIA and major shareholder Husang Ansary collapsed, Ansary gave instructions to withdraw $100 million in policyholders money from ENNIA. After CBCS placed ENNIA under an emergency measure, the $100 million was returned to ENNIA. The CBCS notes, however, that $50 million came from a private account of Ansary.[18] On 29 January 2019, a United States Bankruptcy Court declared CBCS is entitled to the accounts[20] since based on the emergency measure, CBCS, and not Parman, is effectively managing ENNIA. The accounts had been frozen because Parman and its major shareholder Ansary did not want to confirm that the CBCS is entitled to the accounts.[21] According to the CBCS, the procedures of Parman and Ansary delay the restructuring process of ENNIA, which increases the risk of its policy holders.[18]
Ansary is a devoted
Ansary was involved in the creation of several medical and educational institutions, such as the
Ansary and his wife Shahla are based in
Awards and honors
- Ansary is a recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Award.[14]
- Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University established the Ansary Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics in 2004 in honor of a grant from Ansary and his wife Shahla.[28]
- The American Academy of Diplomacy's Ansary Outreach Program was a two-year series of discussions, lectures, and seminars about U.S. foreign policy which began in 2004.[29]
- The Ansary Gallery of American History at the George Bush Presidential Library was named in his honor in 2004.[30]
- James A. Baker III Prize for Excellence in Leadership (2013) [31]
Notes
- ^ a b Urschel, Donna (27 February 2014). ""A Thousand Years of the Persian Book" Exhibition Opens at Library of Congress March 27". Library of Congress. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
- ^ "GERECHT IN EERSTE AANLEG VAN CURAÇAO o" (PDF). Knipselkrant Curacao. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
- ^ "Ansary ordered to pay over NAf. 1 billion in damages". The Daily Herald sx. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2023.
- ^ Milani, p. 80.
- ISBN 9780815609070.
- ^ "Foreign relations of the USA". US State Department. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ Milani, pp. 81–83.
- ^ Milani, p. 84.
- ^ Milani, p. 83.
- JSTOR 4325678.
- ^ Milani, pp. 82–84.
- ^ Milani, p. 81.
- ^ Milani, p. 83: "According to William Shawcross, Ansary 'was one of the richest men' in Iran."; Milani, p. 84: "...he had clearly come to America a very rich man—Forbes called him a 'multimillionaire refugee'—...".
- ^ a b c Hushang Ansary Ellis Island Medal bio Archived 3 September 2005 at the Wayback Machine. National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. Retrieved 2010-12-18.
- ^ "IRI International Corp.: Private Company Information". Bloomberg News. 25 May 2015. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
- ^ "Hushang Ansary: Executive Profile & Biography"[dead link]. BusinessWeek. Retrieved 18 December 2010.
- ^ "Kirby Corporation Completes the Purchase of Stewart & Stevenson LLC and Reports on the Impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma" (Press release).
- ^ a b c Press releasecentralbank.cw (in German) Archived 28 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Ansary frustrates restructuring of insurance company ENNIA". 14 January 2019.
- ^ "Court document" (PDF). uscourts.gov. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
- ^ Insurance rehabilitation kramerlevin.com [dead link]
- ^ Milani, pp. 79, 84.
- ^ Staff (9 January 2009). "Donors pay for carrier Bush commissioning". The Virginian Pilot. The Pilot Online. Archived from the original on 6 August 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
- ^ "Million-Dollar Donors in the 2016 Presidential Race". New York Times. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ "Trump 2017 Inauguration Contributions". OpenSecrets.org |. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ISBN 9780300044126.
CYRUS ANSARY.
- ^ "Ellis Island Medal of Honor Database". eihonors.org. Ellis Island Honors Society. Archived from the original on 6 September 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ Weil, Jonathan (May 2004) "New Stem Cell Center at Cornell". Cancer Biology & Therapy (Austin, TX: Landes Bioscience) 3 (5): 425–426.
- ^ "The Ansary Outreach Program" Archived 2011-02-04 at the Wayback Machine. American Academy of Diplomacacy. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
- ^ "Grand Opening of Ansary Gallery". News From the George Bush Presidential Library Center. July 2004. p. 4.
- ^ "James A. Baker III Prize for Excellence in Leadership". bakerinstitute.org. Retrieved 29 December 2018.