The clerical regime has worn the costume of revolutionary justice, of privatization, of resistance to sanctions, of popular capitalism. 1990s–2000s: “privatization” as internal transferWhen the post-war reconstruction era demanded market vocabulary, the regime supplied it. The tea itself was allegedly cheap Kenyan leaf sold as premium Indian, plus Iranian tea re-imported to harvest the currency differential. 2018–today: sanctions as a license to skimThe most enduring scheme is the one the regime blames on Washington. Independent modelling put total Iranian smuggling near $3 billion annually even in the calmer 1990s.