The Lost Millions of the Shah: The Secret Flight of Iran's Imperial Fortune (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798261871361)

The Lost Millions of the Shah: The Secret Flight of Iran's Imperial Fortune by Peter H. Fairbanks takes readers inside one of the most enduring financial mysteries of the modern era. When Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran in January 1979 as revolution swept the country, rumors quickly followed. Billions in gold, jewels, and cash were said to have vanished alongside him. Decades later, the question remains unresolved. What actually happened to the Shah's fortune, and why has it never been fully recovered?

Tracing the story from the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty through the oil boom of the 1970s and the chaos of revolution, Fairbanks follows the money across borders and institutions. From the vaults of Tehran and the Iranian Crown Jewels to Swiss banks, Panamanian shell companies, frozen U.S. accounts, and offshore trusts, the book reconstructs how modern wealth moves when power collapses. Drawing on memoirs, financial investigations, declassified intelligence material, court records, and contemporary journalism, it separates revolutionary myth from verifiable loss and shows why so much of the truth remains legally and politically unreachable.

Part historical investigation, part financial detective story, this book reveals how secrecy, global banking, and regime change collided at a pivotal moment in Middle Eastern history. It is not a tale of a single hidden hoard, but of a fortune that dissolved into systems designed to outlast kings and revolutions alike. Ideal for readers fascinated by lost treasure, modern history, geopolitics, and unsolved financial mysteries, The Lost Millions of the Shah offers a gripping and unsettling look at how power ends, and how money survives.

Author: Peter H. Fairbanks
ISBN-13: 9798261871361
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 12/20/2025
Pages: 122
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.33lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.26d