Seyyed Mohammad Ali Fatemi is a man who likes to be addressed as "Doctor"; he is fond of tall photos, public praise, and portraying himself as a self-made hero in the oil industry.
However, what remains hidden behind this polished image is not the tale of "30 years of running around" that he claims, but the formation of one of the most complex networks of influence, rent, and corruption in the oil, petrochemical, and refining industry of Iran; a network whose backbone is built on the shoulders of companies like Fateh Industry and Fateh Group and dozens of oil and petrochemical companies.
Geography of Corruption and Influence
The traces of this network extend from Neyriz in Fars to Khuzestan, Bushehr, Kohgiluyeh, Hormozgan, and Markazi Province; a vast geography where a collection of experienced oil managers, under political pressure, financial bribery, and the temptation of easy dollars, have been drawn into collaboration.
On another level, a new generation of young managers in the petrochemical and oil industry exists; managers who, due to their elevator ambitions, problematic political and security connections, and thirst for quick wealth, have been attracted to Fatemi's financial corruption network and have become one of the most incompetent managerial generations in this industry; a generation that is referred to as the pinnacle of decline in Iran's oldest industrial organization.
Power and Managerial Changes
Fatemi, relying on a network of shell and paper companies, spending hundreds of billions of tomans on scattered projects and employing dozens of members of parliament, has reached a level of influence where he proudly speaks of his ability to "change the CEO of any oil holding, refining company, and even the Minister of Oil, Welfare, and Industry." This claim sometimes aligns with frequent managerial changes in oil and refining companies that coincide with the interests of this network.
Seyyed Mohammad Ali Fatemi's legacy in Iran's oil and petrochemical industry is neither development nor innovation, but the consolidation of political rent, the destruction of human capital, the annihilation of dozens of knowledge-based industrial groups, and the waste of millions of dollars of the country's resources.
In this context, the performance of oversight and security institutions is also a serious question; where thick corruption files, instead of leading to the removal and accountability, become a tool for the displacement of managers and the reproduction of the corrupt network. The result of such a process is a paper champion that, more than anything, is a clear sign of the decline of the sun of industry in Iran.
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