UANI Warns London Summit Sponsors, Participants of Multiple, Grave Risks of Iran Business Investments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 8, 2016 Phone: (212) 922-0063 press@uani.com UANI Warns London Summit Sponsors, Participants of Multiple, Grave Risks of Iran Business Investments UANI full page ad in Financial Times details extensive financial, legal, reputational risks of ties to state sponsor of terror, human rights abuser New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) today warned participants and sponsors of an Iran investment event March 9 in London to reconsider their attendance, given the grave and extensive legal, financial and reputational risks of working with a country whose largest export is terrorism and which leads the world in the executions of its own citizens. UANI sent letters to leaders of firms sponsoring or participating in the FT Iran Summit 2016 at the Landmark Hotel in London, including Renault, Deloitte, Dentons, Forbes & Manhattan, Fitch Ratings, and Clyde and Co, urging them to exercise extreme caution before resuming "business as usual" in Iran. UANI will also publish a full page ad in the Financial Times on the day of the event detailing 10 serious risks associated with doing business in Iran. "Business executives who gather in London to hear pitches from Iranian officials owe it to their shareholders, their employees and the future of their companies to fully understand the unvarnished truth concerning the grave risks of investing in Iran," said UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. "Given the panoply of inherent financial, legal and reputational risks, prudent business leaders should conclude that the long-term damage from business with Iran is not worth the illusion of short term opportunity." Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, aiding terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. The Iranian regime remains an international outlaw and force for instability in the Middle East and throughout the world and continues to be a staunch supporter of the brutal Assad regime in Syria. According to the United Nations, Iran "continues ... to execute more individuals per capita than any other country in the world" and executions "have been rising at an exponential rate since 2005." The Boroumand Foundation recorded that Tehran carried out 1,084 executions in 2015, the highest rate of executions in Iran in 25 years. Just last month, one of Iran's vice presidents revealed that the country had executed all of the adult males in a single village, while the persecution of religious minorities and civil society actors also continues unabated. In its letter to Renault, for example, UANI points out that even the event's website notes that "despite the nuclear accord agreed with world powers, Iran remains a challenging state for international corporations to do business, due to high levels of state control, bureaucracy and lack of transparency." The letter further notes that certain sectors of the Iranian economy like the automotive industry, are dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC"), which remains sanctioned by the U.S. Government and the international community of nations as a terrorist organization.  Iran Business Risks The risks inherent in doing business in Iran remain serious and fall into at least 10 distinct categories:   Revocation of the JCPOA. No business can be assured that a regime intent on acquiring nuclear weapons through cheating, subterfuge, and guile will not violate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and cause the "snap back" of economic sanctions by the U.S. and the international community.*    Economic Sanctions Independent of the JCPOA. Notwithstanding the JCPOA, significant economic sanctions remain in effect which bar companies and their affiliates from doing business in multiple sectors of Iran's economy.  The passage of the JCPOA does not eliminate or ease those sanctions. Doing Business with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Doing business in Iran means doing business with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ("IRGC"), a terrorist organization sanctioned by the U.S. and international community.  It is flatly illegal for American and international companies to do business with the IRGC, but corporate compliance officers and country managers will be unable to discern if their companies are doing business with a reputable Iranian company or one that is secretly operated, managed and even owned by the IRGC.  Mandatory Regulatory Disclosures. Doing business in Iran and with its autocratic government is a risk factor that must be disclosed to corporate boards, shareholders, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the myriad regulatory agencies in the European Union, Middle East, and Asia.  The failure to make complete disclosure of a company's Iranian business plans, with its attendant risks and dangers, could result in substantial penalties and fines and a flood of corporate and shareholder litigation. Arrest, Imprisonment, Kidnapping, Torture, and Execution. A company that does business in Iran exposes its officers, employees, and contractors to a high risk of harassment, arrest, prosecution, and incarceration without due process of law, without the right to legal counsel, and without an effective and independent judicial system to protect basic legal rights.  Unavailability and Deficiency of Insurance Coverage. Companies will find that their business operations and assets in Iran are either uninsurable or subject to inadequate coverage and/or extraordinary insurance premiums because of the highly unstable and risk-laden political, legal, and business environment. Hacking and Cyber Insecurity. Doing business in Iran will inevitably lead to the hacking and theft by Iranian operatives and security agents of proprietary information, trade secrets, confidential employee and corporate information, personal information, and customer information. Impairment of Future Business Opportunities. A company that shortsightedly embraces business opportunities in Iran will likely be cut off from more lucrative business opportunities in countries that oppose Iran's hegemonic policies, such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.  Even worse, companies may be barred altogether from doing any business within the borders of these neighboring countries because they will be viewed as providing financial support to a lawless regime that is antithetical to their very existence. Impairment of Corporate Reputation.  A company that seeks to monetize opportunities in a country notorious for sponsoring terrorism and violating fundamental human rights, including state sponsored killings and torture of its own citizens, will inevitably corrode its reputation with consumers, trading partners, and the general public.  Impairment of Shareholder Value. Influential shareholders and the investing public will not look charitably upon any company whose drive for short term profits in Iran will inexorably finance that regime's policies of sponsoring terrorism, nuclear proliferation, subjugation of women, violent repression of LGBT individuals, and the arbitrary incarceration and execution of its citizens.  It is difficult to see how share value will not suffer. UANI is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group founded in 2008 by Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and Middle East Expert Dennis Ross that seeks to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons.  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

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