Tenants who leased space at 650 Fifth Avenue included Ivan F. Boesky, the infamous "greed-is-good" Wall Street speculator who was convicted of insider trading in 1987, and Marc Rich, a billionaire oil trader whose invention of the spot oil market made his fortune and changed the world economy.

However, the shell company officially registered in Jersey, was reported to be owned by Bank Melli.

[5] In September 2013, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled "based on the uncontroverted record evidence, Assa was (and is) a front for [Iran's first national bank] Bank Melli, and thus a front for the government of Iran" and thus Alavi should forfeit for the property.

[6] In June 2017, acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said the United States was prepared to seize the skyscraper—worth between $500 million to $1 billion—after a jury found that the Iranian sanctions had indeed been breached.

[7] In 2019, the jury verdict to seize the property was overturned by a federal appeals court.