Iran sued the exiled Shah in New York for billions, lost, and the tower his foundation built ended up paying terror victims $318 million

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran on 16 January 1979 and died in Cairo in July 1980. In November 1979 the Islamic Republic sued him and his wife in New York State Supreme Court, alleging he had taken billions of dollars of public money^†. A second suit targeted his sister Princess Ashraf. The New York Court of Appeals upheld dismissal in 1984, ruling New York was not the right forum. The Pahlavi Foundation had built a 36-storey office tower at 650 Fifth Avenue, completed in 1978. After the revolution it passed to the Alavi Foundation. US prosecutors later alleged the building was controlled by the Iranian government and filed a forfeiture case. A judge ordered forfeiture in 2014; a jury found for the government in 2017; an appeals court ordered a new trial in 2019. A settlement in March 2026 dissolved Alavi, transferred the tower to a new charity, and committed about $318 million to victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism, with $129 million paid on 20 March 2026.