High-ranking intelligence official with fake Jewish identity in Canada
By Iraj Mesdaghi & Kamran Malekpour
The tall Iranian-Canadian man who walks the streets of North Vancouver with his Labrador every day is known only for his sweet stories of success and immigration. But they don’t know that behind Isaac’s calm and stylish face lies a hidden and dark past. He is not an ordinary immigrant, but a former high-ranking officer of the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence and a key figure in the executions of the 1988s in Iran.
Every summer evening in North Vancouver, a tall man in Lululemon sportswear emerges from his luxurious mansion with his golden Labrador. His neighbors call him “Isaac Hakim,” a beloved financial advisor they know for his powerful, hardworking, and calming background.
But behind the righteous face of this man with false calm lies a hidden story. Isaac is actually “Eshaq Hajizadeh,” a former high-ranking agent of the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence, who later entered into a covert economic operation to supply the Islamic Republic’s nuclear missile network.
As he told his small circle of friends in Vancouver, Isaac also told his neighbors that after the Islamic Revolution, he and his family were forced to leave Iran, and his fate was decided with difficulty. According to him, the Islamic government confiscated their Jewish family’s property, and they fled without money, in difficult circumstances, and illegally, first to Türkiye and then to Canada.
But his family, now known as “Hakim” among Canadians, rebuilt their lives from scratch with great effort and perseverance and became the owners of the Hakim Optical eyewear chain.
However, the neighbors are unaware that behind the established and dignified face of “Isaac Hakim,” the name that is on everyone’s lips today, lies a mysterious figure from the security structure of the Islamic Republic; a man with the real name of “Eshaq Hajizadeh,” who in the 1960s served as the right-hand man of Mohammad Mohammadi Rey Shahri, the then prosecutor of the revolution, and one of the main people responsible for the widespread execution of opponents of the regime.
Rey Shahri was appointed as the first minister of the Ministry of Intelligence after its establishment. His tenure as minister is tied to one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Islamic Republic, the mass executions of the summer of 1988, which are known as one of the human rights tragedies of that era. Just a few months after leaving the ministry, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed him as the custodian of the shrine of Abdul Azim Hassani in the city of Rey in 1989, a role that some say was a cover for his continued influence behind the scenes of security.
Eshaq Hajizadeh, who was known as one of the young forces of the Ministry of Intelligence’s foreign affairs deputy in those years, was assigned by the ministry’s order to simultaneously play a role in the guardianship of the Abdul Azim shrine, along with Mohammad Mohammadi Rey Shahri, the former Minister of Intelligence; a place that was ostensibly a religious place, but in practice became a base for continuing security and economic activities.
This transition coincided with the beginning of a new phase of the Ministry of Intelligence’s economic influence in the 1970s; a period when Rey Shahri, accompanied by influential figures in the security and economic sectors, as well as oil ministers and heads of various commissions in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, including Mohammad Saeedi Kia, Mohammad Shariatmadari, and Gholam Hossein Nozari, began to create a complex network of satellite companies.
This complex, which was later known as Foad ray (foad rey or rey holding), was established as one of the key sub-units of the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Decree and played a pivotal role in expanding the regime’s security-economic empire. This holding company was not only satisfied with launching hundreds of companies within Iran, but also gradually expanded its activities beyond its borders and gained an economic presence in European countries and Canada.
Before his official deployment to Canada in 2011, Eshaq Hajizadeh held key management positions in several companies affiliated with the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Decree. A position that allowed him to play a role in both economic and international security spheres.
Eshaq Hajizadeh was:
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ayandeh Sazan Economic Development Company
- A member of the Board of Directors of Tadbir Strategic Studies Management Consulting Group
- A member of the Board of Directors of Ayandeh International Economic Development
- Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qaed Basir Petrochemical Products
These companies, known as the economic arms of security and executive institutions, have been on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions list for years due to their links to Iran’s missile and nuclear programs.
Washington Post report and the shadow of sanctions: Traces of a mysterious Iranian factory in the heart of Europe
On April 15, 2013, the Washington Post published an investigative report titled “A Mysterious Iranian-Run Factory in Germany,” which revealed activities that had been going on in silence for years. The report examined a factory in a small industrial town of about 70,000 people in western Germany that ostensibly produced compressed gas cylinders, but the unusual behavior of its managers, rejection of investor proposals, and the presence of ultra-high-tech equipment raised alarm bells among international observers.
According to the report, the factory, despite its high capacity, showed no signs of trying to make a profit. In one of the sheds, a multi-million-euro machine was left unused; a machine that experts believed was suitable for producing centrifuge parts and missile equipment. The factory was eventually shut down in March 2013, but what remained were unanswered questions about its role in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programs and the names that were now on the US sanctions list.
This reputable American newspaper emphasized in its report that the MCS Industrial Complex was apparently engaged in the production of compressed gas cylinders, but two suspicious points were noteworthy: first, the rejection of all investment proposals without exception, and second, the management of the production process in a way that did not see profitability as the main goal. Washington Post reporters also wrote that after the failure to transfer an expensive industrial machine to Iran, the factory was completely shut down in late March 2013.
The report noted that the facility was capable of producing key parts for centrifuges and missiles. One of the main materials used in the plant was carbon fiber, a highly heat-resistant, lightweight material used in the aerospace, automotive, and advanced centrifuge industries. At the MCIS plant, these fibers were used to produce compressed gas cylinders and hydraulic systems, but a significant portion of them was unused and stored in warehouses. According to experts, about 1,180 kilograms of carbon fiber stored in the plant was enough to build more than 550 advanced centrifuges in Iran.
As a German manufacturing unit, MCS had the ability to source carbon fibers from the Japanese company Toho Tenax and the French company Toray.
Putting this information together, there is no doubt that this factory was part of a secret program to provide vital equipment for Iran’s nuclear program.
The Washington Post reached out to a manager at the Eshaq Hajizadeh factory for clarification. He denied any suspicious nuclear activity and gave a mixed response to reporters, saying:
“The Iranian people are doing their best to circumvent sanctions, but that won’t happen at my company.”
An examination of the ownership records of the MCS factory in Germany and its Iranian branch, Pars MCS, revealed new facts. Eshaq Hajizadeh and Abdolrasoul Dori Esfahani, both Canadian citizens, purchased the assets of the factory in Germany in 2011 to provide and transfer equipment needed for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program to Iran under the cover of industrial activities.
The German group MCS Technologies was actually a branch of the Pars MCS company. The ownership of this Iranian-German factory raised serious questions at the international level from the beginning, especially after the revelation of its connections with Mohammad Mohammadi Rey Shahri, the former Iranian Minister of Intelligence. A detailed answer had to be given to it.
It is noteworthy that Abdolrasoul Dori Esfahani, Eshaq Hajizadeh’s partner in this group, later became known as one of the senior negotiators in the JCPOA agreement and a figure close to Mohammad Javad Zarif, the then Iranian Foreign Minister.
The alarm bell of sanctions and the change of Jewish identity
The Washington Post’s comprehensive and documented report on the suspicious Iranian factory in Germany, which ultimately led to its closure, did not attract much attention from the Iranian-Canadian community and the country’s media. However, “Eshaq Hajizadeh’s” name was added to the list of people suspected of collaborating with terrorism in financial and credit institutions, and some Canadian banks froze his personal accounts.
Shortly after the closure of the German plant, the US Treasury Department also placed MCS Technologies in Germany and its Iranian subsidiary, Pars MCS, on its sanctions list. This action was a serious wake-up call for Eshaq Hajizadeh, as the shareholder and chief executive of the company; a company that supplied and shipped key equipment for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear centrifuges and missile technology, but whose operations had now ceased.
Although Hajizadeh’s name had previously been seen among the board members of two sanctioned companies under the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Decree, he knew very well that the case of the German company “MCS” would be different.
In a hasty and mistaken move, Hajizadeh gave an interview to the Washington Post in an attempt to mislead German security officials and keep the factory operating; an action that, instead of helping, resulted in his face being exposed and the factory eventually closing.
Eshaq Hajizadeh returned to Vancouver, Canada, and consulted with his friends in Tehran. They found a solution in changing his identity. He filed a formal request for a name change in the British Columbia court and chose the name Isaac Hakim for himself. He even changed his children’s last names so that there would be no doubt about the authenticity of this new identity.
Isaac Hakim; Financial Advisor at WFG
After changing his identity, Isaac Hakim joined one of the company’s representatives at the well-known American-Canadian World Financial Group (WFG) in Vancouver, at the suggestion of “Masoud Rahmdel,” a former member of the Revolutionary Guards, and “Fazel Larijani.”
WFG, which operates in a pyramid structure in financial and economic activities, offers a variety of services with the slogan “Building a bright future for customers.” Isaac Hakim went to the same office where Masoud Rahmadel was also present at the time, and it was managed by Arbitrator Arab Bushehri, a management that continues to this day.
Eshaq Hajizadeh, a former agent of the Islamic Republic’s Ministry of Intelligence and a member of the board of directors of several sanctioned Iranian companies whose factory in Germany was closed for helping to provide raw materials for the manufacture of centrifuges and ballistic missiles, passed an exam to become a financial and economic consultant for a well-known company in the financial and economic fields in less than a few months.
A few years have passed since then, and Isaac Hakim, under this new name and this time in collaboration with other companies, continues to carry the title of financial and economic consultant.
Eshaq Hajizadeh was contacted several times for this report, but he was reluctant to speak on the phone. However, in the messages exchanged, he confirmed the change of his first and last name, although he stated the reason for this change was simply “personal interest.” When we wrote that he preferred to be addressed by his new name, he did not deny it at all and openly accepted it. Hajizadeh in his messages identified himself as a well-known financial and business consultant in Vancouver and claimed that his frequent trips to the United States indicated his impeccable past.
However, he ultimately sent a threatening message to the authors of the report, warning that he would deal with “severity and severity” if any material about him was published.
A question for the President of the United States and the Government of Canada
How is it possible that a man who was the director of Fuad Rey Holding and the executive headquarters of the Imam’s decree, is also known as a supplier of missile equipment to Iran and a board member of several companies under sanctions, can easily travel to the United States and, as he claims, manage tens of millions of dollars in financial assets in international companies?
Doesn’t this situation show that the sanctions position of the US Treasury and the Department of Homeland Security is seriously weak or flawed?
Do the financial companies that Isaac Hakim works with not know that this broker’s real name was Eshaq Hajizadeh? How is it possible that his name was not checked in the database of people suspected of money laundering or aiding terrorism? Did Hajizadeh deliberately hide his background and true identity from these companies?
To better understand these questions, it is worth knowing that years ago, Iraj Mesdaghi, one of the authors of this report, tried to expose Eshaq Hajizadeh, but he was met with resistance and obstruction by Canadian security agents.
To download the full article in Persian as a PDF file, please click on the link below.
