TDFP EXCLUSIVE: Telecom Giant That Owns 49% of Iran's Irancell and Faces U.S. Anti-Terrorism Lawsuits Has Paid Washington Lobbyists $1.5 Million
MTN Group, the South African telecommunications company that owns 49% of an Iranian mobile operator, has paid Washington lobbyists $1.54 million since 2024 to make its case to Congress, according to federal lobbying disclosures reviewed by The Digital Free Press.
The newest report, posted on Oct. 19, shows the Vogel Group received $120,000 from MTN's Dubai unit, MTN (Dubai) Limited, for lobbying the House and Senate in the July-September quarter.
The filing describes the work as "Educating policymakers regarding MTN's investments and MTNs business operations alignment with U.S and International trade laws, MTNs role in international economic development, and its role in fostering digital and financial inclusion." It lists MTN Group Limited of South Africa and three related MTN companies as the foreign entities behind the client.
The listed lobbyists are Alexander Vogel, who the filing says was chief counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Ali Khimji and Matthew Keelen.
The filings do not mention Iran, Irancell or the lawsuits against the company.
MTN's $1.54 Million in Lobbying Since 2024
The Vogel Group has reported $820,000 from MTN since it registered in mid-2025, including $410,000 so far in 2026. Before that, The Madison Group reported $720,000 from MTN (Dubai) over four quarters from April 2024 through March 2025, lobbying on "global O-RAN deployment and telecommunications." That firm reported contacts with the State and Commerce Departments, the Export-Import Bank, the National Security Council and the Executive Office of the President, as well as Congress.
In a statement to The Digital Free Press on Oct. 26, Nompilo Morafo, MTN Group's Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, said that "like many other companies of our size, we use the services of various consultants and advisors across the world." She said the consultants advise MTN "on a wide range of matters relating to our work to extend digital and financial inclusion" and help it "better understand the dynamic policy, legislative and regulatory environment across markets."
"In the United States, we are currently using the services of the Vogel Group, amongst others, which is advising us on various matters that could potentially impact how we run our operations," Morafo said.
The Iran Stake
MTN owns 49% of Irancell, Iran's second-largest mobile operator. "Since 2006, MTN Group has held a 49% investment in Irancell, which is not under MTN's operational control," Morafo said in the statement.
She said MTN announced plans in 2020 to exit its operations in the Middle East and focus on Africa, and that the exit from Iran "has been complicated by the existence of US sanctions and the exclusion since 2018 of Iran from the international money transfer system SWIFT."
"We do not deploy any capital into the business or extract capital or dividends in strict adherence to global sanctions," Morafo said. "This means MTN's investment in Iran is essentially frozen."
Bloomberg reported in August that U.S. sanctions on Iran have blocked a sale of the stake. In August 2026, MTN said it would take a significant write-down on the Irancell stake, The Rio Times and other outlets reported.
The Lawsuits
MTN is a defendant in lawsuits in federal court in Brooklyn brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act by American service members, civilians and their families. The lead case is Zobay v. MTN Group. The plaintiffs allege that MTN's business in Iran and Afghanistan gave material help to terrorist groups responsible for attacks that killed and injured Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2011 and 2019, including through the Irancell venture and alleged protection payments to the Taliban. The claims have not been proven.
On Sept. 25, 2026, the court denied MTN's requests to reconsider an earlier decision allowing some of the claims in Zobay to proceed, or to allow an immediate appeal, according to an update MTN filed with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Sept. 29. MTN said the rulings "are procedural and do not constitute a finding of wrongdoing or liability against MTN." The Zobay case and a related case, Long v. MTN Group, now move into discovery, the update said.
Asked about the lawsuits, Morafo pointed to that Sept. 29 update. In it, MTN said it "has deep sympathy for those who have been injured or lost loved ones as a result of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," that it "continues to believe that the evidence will demonstrate that MTN was not a culpable participant in the attacks at issue," and that it will "continue to defend the proceedings vigorously."
MTN has consistently denied the claims. In an April 2025 statement, it said the plaintiffs had "sued the wrong defendants in the wrong court, based on insufficient allegations."
The website National Security News reported in July 2025 that MTN Dubai had retained the Vogel Group. The Digital Free Press found no news report of the amounts MTN has paid its Washington lobbyists before publication.
The Digital Free Press reached out to MTN Group and the Vogel Group for comment on Oct. 26. MTN responded with the statement quoted above. The Vogel Group did not respond to a request for comment by publication.
Images: MTN Plaza, Falomo, Lagos, by Larmi.png, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; East Front of the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Capitol (Flickr), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Yossi Schmidt, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Free Press
Hold Everyone Accountable.
Sources: MTN Group statement to The Digital Free Press from Nompilo Morafo, Group Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Oct. 26, 2026 ; The Vogel Group, third-quarter 2026 lobbying report (LD-2) for MTN (Dubai) Limited, $120,000, posted Oct. 19, 2026: https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/add710d1-5e4a-4809-92dc-6ac7b5f78bce/print/ ; The Vogel Group, registration (LD-1) for MTN (Dubai) Limited, posted June 28, 2025 (lists MTN Group Limited and related foreign entities): https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/b19a3624-d187-47e3-b043-35bdcb237327/print/ ; Federal lobbying database, client "MTN" (all Vogel Group and Madison Group reports, 2024-2026): https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/?client_name=MTN ; The Madison Group, first-quarter 2025 report for MTN (Dubai) Limited: https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/c755ffa2-a524-491e-8a8d-7119d3fa7721/print/ ; MTN Group, "Update on US Anti-Terrorism Act litigation – Zobay and Long," Stock Exchange News Service, Sept. 29, 2026: https://www.profiledata.co.za/JSE_SENS_PDF/history/2026/09/29/SENS_20260929_S603922.pdf ; Bloomberg, "MTN Climbs on Buyback Plan; Plans Iran Exit If Sanctions Lift," Aug. 24, 2026: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-24/mtn-profit-rises-21-to-buy-back-375-million-of-shares ; The Rio Times, "MTN Iran Impairment Deepens Again in 2026 Results": https://www.riotimesonline.com/mtn-iran-impairment-irancell-2026/ ; Corporate INTL, "Is MTN Being Sued? What the US Anti-Terrorism Act Ruling Means for Multinationals," Oct. 2, 2026: https://corp-intl.com/news/is-mtn-being-sued-anti-terrorism-act ; Zobay v. MTN Group, E.D.N.Y. No. 1:21-cv-03503, court opinion on GovInfo: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-nyed-1_21-cv-03503/pdf/USCOURTS-nyed-1_21-cv-03503-1.pdf ; National Security News, "Bipartisan momentum builds in US Congress to sanction South Africa's ANC government," July 2025: https://nationalsecuritynews.com/2025/07/bipartisan-momentum-builds-in-us-congress-to-sanction-south-africas-anc-government/
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