18 Arrested in Cases of 'Illegal Vehicle Imports' and 'Currency Disruptors'

The spokesperson for Iran's judiciary announced that 18 individuals have been arrested in cases related to 'illegal vehicle imports' and 'currency disruptors'. According to IRNA news agency, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei stated on Saturday, August 6, that 13 individuals had been previously arrested in these cases, and recently five more have been detained. He also reported that arrest warrants for additional suspects have been issued, but he is unaware of the number of new arrests since last night. On Tuesday, August 1, Mr. Ejei had also announced that five officials from the Ministry of Industry, including a director general and his deputy, were arrested in connection with the 'illegal' registration of vehicle orders, four of whom remain in custody. From July 19 to December 30, 1396 (July 9, 2017, to December 20, 2017), while the vehicle import registration website affiliated with the Ministry of Industry was blocked, over six thousand orders for expensive vehicles were registered on this site, and the General Inspection Organization of the country claims that the reason for this 'illegal registration' was a hacking incident. The judiciary spokesperson also mentioned that the Central Bank has allocated $159.8 million and $50 million for distribution in the market to currency exchange offices. According to Mr. Ejei, the bank has not yet responded to the judiciary's inquiry regarding how these individuals 'returned the received currency to the Central Bank or what guarantees the Central Bank had from these individuals for receiving the rials and how they were monitored'. Reports indicate that the government had distributed some currency among a number of exchange offices in recent months to control the currency market. However, judiciary officials have reported the arrest of some of these currency traders for 'violations' in selling these currencies above the agreed price with the Central Bank. This action had also been taken in 2012 after the dollar price increase by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. However, Eshaq Jahangiri, the first vice president of Hassan Rouhani, stated in 2014 that 'in the previous government, within less than 18 months, about $22 billion of the country's currency was taken out of the country under the pretext of controlling its price domestically and was sold in the markets of Istanbul and Dubai'. In recent weeks, reports have emerged regarding 'violations' in the import of mobile phones, vehicles, and other goods that were imported with government currency. Meanwhile, Mr. Ejei announced on Wednesday, August 2, the formation of a case against 40 companies and the summoning of the CEO of the Social Security Investment Company in connection with 'violations' in the import of mobile phones with government currency.