The Guardian report paints a very different picture of Sabeti’s life today. In the affluent neighborhood of Windermere, Florida, he appears as a calm retiree, living in his $3.6 million lakeside mansion — a man his neighbors know only as a simple “Peter.” But the truth is that “Peter” is none other than Parviz Sabeti, a man who, in the 1970s, was one of SAVAK’s central pillars.

Documents show that Sabeti and his family own at least eight luxury properties in the United States. This accumulation of wealth was not the fruit of legitimate work, but the result of siphoning millions of dollars out of Iran in the chaotic days before the Revolution. Wealth that could have been spent on the development and welfare of the people now lies hidden behind the high walls of Western mansions.

Secret Files and Missing Money

According to U.S. State Department documents and CIA analyses, the Sabeti family managed to spirit more than $20 million out of Iran. This is only one example among dozens of similar cases, which together reveal how the Pahlavi court’s inner circle pocketed national resources and converted them into American dollars and European pounds.

These massive transfers of wealth took place even as the Iranian people struggled under economic hardship, inflation, and deepening class divides. Such facts prove that looting was not an aberration but an inseparable part of the monarchy’s structure — a regime that publicly touted “modernization,” but in practice turned the country into a playground of pillage and dependency.

Dark Legacy of the Monarchy

Parviz Sabeti is not merely a “wealthy exile”; he embodies the fusion of repression and plunder under the Pahlavis. CIA records described him as one of the most powerful and feared figures in the security apparatus — a man with the authority to order arrests, torture, and even the deaths of thousands of dissidents.

Now, that same man, in the guise of a quiet retiree, seeks to conceal his bloody past. This change of image is not simply a personal maneuver; it reflects a broader strategy of the pro-Pahlavi current to “whitewash” history. They are attempting to reshape collective memory and confront the younger generation with a distorted picture of the past.

Need to Revisit Betrayals

The Sabeti files are not just a personal story; they are part of the wider tale of betrayal by the Shah and his entourage against the Iranian nation. What the Guardian has revealed today shows how a torturer can reinvent himself in the West as a prosperous citizen, even while his victims still carry the scars of torture on their bodies and minds.

Revisiting these documents is essential to preserving national memory. Forgetting such crimes and plunder would open the door for the return of deceptive propaganda. The Pahlavi regime not only crushed political freedoms but also plundered the country’s economic foundations. This sinister pairing — repression and pillage — was the monarchy’s true legacy, exposed by the Islamic Revolution.