فساد اقتصادی دوره رضاشاه

Of the $18,412,000 ($92,060,000) allocated from 1928 to 1941 for the purchase of arms in Europe and America, at most £4.5 million had actually been spent for that purpose. As shown below, the unused balance of this sum at the end of Reza Shah's reign was only $508,000 (about $101,000). Had $91 million actually been spent on armaments Iran would have possessed an army and air force many times greater than it actually possessed in 1941. Even using the highly inflated 1941 prices for the most advanced American weapons ($70,000 for a warplane, $25,000 for a tank, and $5,000 for a truck), Iran could have potentially purchased 1,300 advanced American fighter-bombers, or over 3,500 tanks, or 18,000 trucks, or any appropriate combination thereof. In 1941, however, Iran actually possessed 245 war- planes, 100 tanks, and at most 500 trucks and tractors. Moreover, the army had only enough ammunition to last one or two days of fighting. The evidence indicates that at least $14 million was diverted to Reza Shah's bank accounts. Thus, the claim by Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq that the bulk of Iran's oil revenues had been diverted to Reza Shah's accounts in Europe and America is substantiated. As for about £6.3 million ($31.5 mil- lion) supposedly allocated to such projects as port construction, railways, or railway maintenance, one can be fairly confident that the money was used to convert the income from Reza Shah's domestic assets into foreign exchange for deposit in foreign banks. The data and analysis indicate that at least £20 million ($100 million), or two-thirds of Iran's oil royalties dur- ing 1927-41, was stolen and diverted by Reza Shah. As shown in chapter 12. confirmation was to come from unexpected sources. To appreciate the magnitude of this sum, the entire credit guarantee limit of the United States Export-Import Bank in 1940 was $100 million

Mohammad Gholi Majd