Setad and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are both under control of Supreme Leader of Iran and have cooperated in different fields in recent decades.
In 2011, a consortium known as Mobin Trust Consortium (TEM) purchased of 51% of shares of Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI). The acquisition was among the biggest in Iran’s history. The largest stakeholder of the consortium “was a company controlled by the Revolutionary Guards”, and Setad controlled another 38%. The terms of payment were very favorable—TEM was required to make a down payment of only 20% and had eight years to pay the rest of the price. Board of managers of TCI has members from both Setad and IRGC. For example, Dr. Ali Baghaei [51] is CEO and Vice Chairman of Tadbir Economic Development group (a subsidiary of Setad)[52] and at the same time he is president of MCI which is subsidiary of TCI.[53] Also Mr. Seyed Asadollah Dehnad who is member of IRGC is member of board of MCI.
The takeover of the TCI by the Setad and Revolutionary Guard was assisted by a government regulator, the Iranian Privatisation Organisation (IPO), which eliminated a competing bid for the TCI (by a telecom company called Pishgaman Kavir Yazd Cooperative Co.) the day before the sale of TCI. In 2010, the man responsible for the elimination of the bid—the head of IPO at the time of the sale, Gholamreza Heydari Kord Zanganeh—was appointed managing director of Tose’e Eqtesad Ayandehsazan Co, or TEACO—a “giant holding company” owned by Setad. He was later named chairman of a large pharmaceutical holding company also owned by Setad (Sobhan Pharma Group). Both examples of the “revolving door between Setad and Iran’s government”, according to Reuters.
Source » wikipedia