The Caribbean island nation of Dominica has taken the unusual step of revoking citizenship from Abolfazl Shamkhani, the younger son of the late Iranian political adviser Ali Shamkhani. This move marks the second time in eight months that a member of the high-profile Shamkhani family has lost their citizenship obtained through Dominica’s controversial Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program.
According to an official document obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the revocation order was formally signed on March 27, 2026 by Daren Pinard, Dominica’s State Minister. Dominican authorities have formally accused Abolfazl of failing to disclose critical material information when he secured citizenship through the CBI pathway back in 200, applying under the false alias “Sami Hayek”. Under local regulations, Abolfazl retains the right to file a formal request for an official inquiry into the revocation order within a 25-day window from the notification date.
This action follows a nearly identical decision taken against Abolfazl’s older brother, Hossein Shamkhani, who was stripped of his Dominican citizenship back in August 2025. As first reported by Dominica News Online at the time, Hossein had also obtained his citizenship through the same investment program operating under an assumed name, “Hugo Hayek”. Just weeks before Hossein’s citizenship was revoked, Western governments had imposed sweeping sanctions on him, alleging that he oversaw a multibillion-dollar transnational oil smuggling network that generates illicit revenue for both the Iranian and Russian governments.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has publicly outlined that members of the Shamkhani family systematically use investment-based citizenship programs to obtain second passports, allowing them to hide their direct connections to Iran while carrying out large-scale international commercial activities that violate global sanctions regimes.
An independent OCCRP investigation published in March 2026 uncovered that the two brothers collectively own at least four high-end luxury villas in Dubai, with a combined estimated value of nearly 29 million U.S. dollars. All of these properties are registered under the false Dominican aliases the brothers used to obtain their citizenship. Cross-referenced corporate records also link the alias “Sami Hayek” to a Cyprus-based investment fund, while both brothers share ties to a Turkish chemical manufacturing company that was later added to OFAC’s sanctions list.
On March 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice filed civil forfeiture complaints seeking to seize more than 15.3 million U.S. dollars in assets that prosecutors have linked directly to the Shamkhani network. Court documents name Abolfazl as the manager of multiple corporate entities tied to his older brother’s sanctioned operations, though Abolfazl himself has not yet been personally sanctioned or criminally charged by U.S. authorities.
In a policy shift implemented just days before Abolfazl’s revocation order was signed, Dominica moved to suspend all new citizenship applications from Iranian nationals through its CBI program, with the new rule taking effect on March 24. Under the updated policy, Iranian nationals are only eligible to apply for CBI citizenship if they have maintained residency outside Iran for a minimum of 10 consecutive years, hold no tangible assets within Iranian borders, and have not conducted any commercial activity with Iranian entities over that period.
Since June 2024, Dominican authorities have revoked a total of 68 CBI passports on the grounds of fraud or intentional misrepresentation on applications. Data shows that Iranian applicants account for six percent of these revocation cases.
Dominica’s CBI program, which grants citizenship in exchange for qualifying investment into the country, has recently faced growing international pressure and heightened scrutiny from both the United States and the European Union. In response to concerns over misuse of the program for illicit activity, Washington has implemented new visa restrictions on Dominican citizens traveling to the United States, while Brussels has issued formal warnings that the operation of the program as currently structured could lead to Dominica being removed from the EU’s visa-free travel scheme.