Iran-linked network tried twice to seize Bavarian bank, BaFin documents show

Iran's state-linked Bank Shahr orchestrated two separate attempts to acquire majority control of TEN31 Bank, a small Bavarian lender based in Ottobrunn near Munich, according to internal documents from Germany's financial regulator BaFin reviewed by ARD's Report Mainz and Der Spiegel.

BaFin correspondence states that over a ten-month period starting in summer 2023, 147 million euros passed through a single TEN31 account, with a large portion originating from companies close to the Iranian regime. Those payments represented more than half of the bank's total balance sheet.

A BaFin letter describes an "intransparent corporate network" attempting to buy a majority stake in TEN31 in order to continue Iran-linked transactions that had previously been banned at another German bank. A further document names the operation explicitly: according to BaFin, participants had "planned and executed the acquisition of the majority stake" in TEN31 on behalf of Shahr Bank, Iran.

Bank Shahr is a semi-state Iranian institution classified as regime-aligned. It has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for years and its front companies are repeatedly suspected of coordinating illegal oil transactions.

Domestic intelligence services learned of the activity; BaFin ultimately blocked the share sale and stripped the involved parties of their voting rights.

The documents show the operation did not stop there. A new purchase attempt is now under way through a small Swiss company registered in the canton of Zug. Records indicate concrete links to the first takeover bid: a photograph from a notarial appointment shows an Iranian-born man alongside the Swiss firm's official board member — the same individual whose name appears in documents from the original attempt.

TEN31 Bank told the outlets it has no knowledge of a visit by a Bank Shahr delegation. BaFin declined to comment on individual cases.