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Middle East Forum Publishes Updated Blood Money Report on Crimes against Humanity in Iran

Updated edition, as of October 4, 2026, adds the UN Fact-Finding Mission's crimes-against-humanity finding and tracks the regime's continuing executions

PHILADELPHIA, October 4, 2026: The Middle East Forum (MEF) today published the October 4, 2026 edition of Blood Money: Crimes against Humanity in Iran, a primary-sourced record of the Islamic Republic's suppression of the uprising that began on December 28, 2025, and of the financial networks that sustain the regime's repression apparatus.

Key findings of the updated edition:

• A UN finding of crimes against humanity. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran concluded in its report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/63/61, advance version September 14, 2026) that "many gross human rights violations by Iran amount to the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture, and other inhumane acts" (para. 121).¹
• The dead. The Iranian government's own official figure is 3,038.⁹ The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) recorded 7,007 deaths, including 6,488 protesters.² Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO) has documented 4,219 dead by name, including at least 420 women and 281 children.³
• Mass detention. HRANA recorded 53,777 arrests.²
• Executions continue. Iran executed protester Mohammad Amini Dehaghani on July 15, 2026.⁴ A joint statement delivered at the Human Rights Council on September 30, 2026 on behalf of over 40 states said at least 31 protesters have been executed.⁵
• The money. The U.S. Treasury states that four conglomerates (the IRGC's Khatam al-Anbiya, Setad, Astan Quds Razavi, and Bonyad Mostazafan) "are said to control more than half of the Iranian economy."⁶ On August 24, 2026 Treasury announced nearly 60 designations (entities, individuals and vessels) under "Operation Economic Outcast."⁷
• Leadership changes. Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28, 2026; his son Mojtaba Khamenei, under U.S. Treasury sanctions since November 4, 2019, succeeded him as Supreme Leader.⁸ Mojtaba Khamenei appears on no EU, UK, Canadian or Australian sanctions list as of October 4, 2026.

The report recommends that allied governments without such a listing designate Mojtaba Khamenei and the officials who directed the crackdown, and that pension funds, endowments, and asset managers screen out entities already designated by the U.S., EU, UK, Canada, or Australia.

"The regime cut the internet so the world would not see the killing, and the executions have not stopped," said Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum. "The UN's own investigators now call it crimes against humanity. Allied governments that have not yet sanctioned the man who now runs this system, and investors who still hold the companies that finance it, have the record in front of them."

The report also records, briefly and as the Mission wrote them, the Fact-Finding Mission's findings concerning U.S. strikes during the 2026 hostilities, including the strike on a school in Minab on February 28, 2026 (paras. 124 to 126 for Minab; para. 128 for Lamerd).¹

"This is not a campaign against Iran or Iranians," Roman added. "It is sanctions and divestment aimed at a regime and the entities that bank its proceeds. Iranians are its first victims."

About the Middle East Forum. The Middle East Forum, founded in 1994, is an applied policy research organization that promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western values from Middle Eastern threats.

Full report: https://iran.meforum.org/blood-money/

Media contact: info@meforum.org, (215) 546-5406

Sources (Accessed October 4, 2026)