Ahmad Ali Masoud Ansari

Ahmad Ali Masoud Ansari is an Iranian economist and the brother of historian Ali M. Ansari. Through his father, Mohammad Ali Massoud Ansari, he is a first cousin of Farah Pahlavi, the last Empress of Iran — a connection that placed him in the innermost circle of the Pahlavi court.

During the 1978–1979 Islamic Revolution, Ansari served as a secret emissary between the Shah and Ayatollah Shariatmadari. After the Shah's fall, he remained with the royal family in exile as a trusted companion, consultant, and emissary — liaising with General Oveissi, Hushang Ansary, and Shapour Bakhtiar on behalf of the Shah until the monarch's death in Cairo in July 1980. He continued as a financial adviser to the Pahlavi family after the Shah's death, though this relationship eventually ended amid legal and financial disputes.

Ansari later published two memoirs — including Nagofteh-ha-ye az Tarikh-e Mo'aser (Untold Stories of Contemporary History) — in which he alleged fraud, feuds, and moral scandals within the royal family. He claimed that Reza Pahlavi and his aides were funded by Saudi Arabia and the CIA, and that Farah Pahlavi maintained leftist political views that undermined the Shah's rule. These allegations, made through books and interviews on Washington-based Mardom TV and Roodast, have not been publicly addressed by the Pahlavi family.