'Under the under-fisted rule of the US puppet Shah of Iran – who came to power after the BP-sponsored Mossadegh coup – Chase Manhattan, which later merged with JP Morgan to become JP Morgan Chase, issued letters of credit for all Iranian oil exports and monopolized deposits from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), even after Iran nationalized Four Horsemen oil interests to create NIOC.

Chase controlled the Pahlevi Foundation which owned an oil company, 12 Iranian sugar refineries, electronics firms, cemeteries, mines, industrial bakeries, the country’s General Motors franchise, and a slew of banks – including the Shah’s personal piggy bank – the Bank Omran. While “Omran” means “development”, the Pahlevi Foundation focused only on developing the fortunes of both the Shah and Chase Manhattan.

David Rockefeller, whose family controls majority interest in the bank, chaired Chase. The Rockefellers added to their fortune during the Shah’s reign, taking in far more oil deposits in the country than it made in loans. By 1978 Iran had become the world’s fourth largest oil producer, supplying 18% of both Japan’s and West Germany’s oil, 50% of Israel’s and 100% of the South African apartheid regime’s. Yet the average Iranian worker languished in poverty.'

Read more: JP Morgan Chase & the Looting of Iran