their social status. Hedayat and others never distanced themselves from Hoveyda, symbolizing the latter's authenticity. As Hoveyda garnered more experience, opportunities within Iran's governmental apparatus were becoming available to him. In August 1944, for instance, he accepted a position to accompany Zein ol-Abedin Rahnema, Iran's minister plenipotentiary, to France. Being an avid Francophile, Hoveyda would enjoy his time as an embassy official, but he would soon be entangled in an international scandal that would taint him for the rest of his life. The "Paris Story" recounts the illegal importation of financial assets, stored in Swiss banks during the war for security purposes, from Switzerland into the coffers of wealthy French businessmen in 1945. To avoid border taxes, diplomatic personnel were persuaded to act as the intermediary, simply because embassy vehicles were, by law, unable to be searched. Although Hoveida never had anything to do with the illegal transfers, his mere association with some of those indicted was enough for him to be used as a scapegoat in the affair. Aside from experience, patronage from the likes of Abdullah Entezam, an independent minded diplomat of "sterling reputation", served to aid Hoveida's ascendance to the upper echelons of public office. With the government of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah (king) of Iran, the only way to obtain high ranking positions in any societal position was through crucial internal patronage, reinforcement Hoveyda sufficiently lacked prior to working with Entezam. The two first got to work together when Hoveyda was stationed in Stuttgart, West Germany. While there in 1947, Hoveyda was assigned with the task of negotiating over deals made between Iran and Germany. The most notable case involved Iran's purchase of factory equipment required for the construction of a steel mill, in which the transaction of the material components were never successfully completed. In 1950, Hoveyda returned to an ever-changing Iran once again. This time, he would be caught in one of the most tumultuous periods of Iran's modern period. As Hoveyda toiled away at a notably boring job as assistant director of the public relations office at the Foreign Ministry, Mohammad Mossadegh was mobilizing nationalist sentiment as he rose to power. During this period, Entezam was appointed as minister of foreign affairs, allowing Hoveyda to assume a more intellectually stimulating role as Entezam's executive secretary. His tenure did not last long before Mossadegh was appointed Prime Minister, dissolving the former cabinet