71 Arrested for 'Major Currency Disruption' in Iran; Ahmad Alavi: It's Just a Facade

While the public relations office of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence announced the arrest of 71 individuals on charges of 'major currency disruption' across 14 provinces, an economic expert in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America described the government's crackdown on the currency market as 'a facade' to cover up Iran's economic problems. According to the Ministry of Intelligence's statement released on Friday, May 5, the detainees were engaged in 'illegal activities' in '23 groups and several organized networks'. The Ministry accused the arrested individuals of exacerbating 'currency market instability, creating abnormal price fluctuations, and wasting the country’s currency resources'. Ahmad Alavi, an economic expert residing in Sweden, deemed this approach ineffective, attributing the chaos in Iran's currency and gold markets to widespread corruption within the economic structure, managerial inefficiency, and the impact of sanctions. Alavi believes that currency brokers are not capable of raising currency rates, and the arrests of market activists over the years have never resolved Iran's currency market issues. The recent wave of arrests by the Ministry of Intelligence occurs despite President Ebrahim Raisi's promises to control currency rates, as the price of each US dollar in Iran's free market rose to '55,000 tomans' this week. The Ministry of Intelligence identified the detainees as 'unauthorized currency exchangers', 'key elements' of the so-called forward trading network, 'a large cryptocurrency network', and 'another network of currency brokers' operating in 10 provinces. The statement detailed the locations of these suspects in the provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Isfahan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Razavi Khorasan, Alborz, Mazandaran, Ilam, and Kerman. Ebrahim Raisi recently announced the activation of a secretariat within the government to change Iran's currency relations with the world, stating: 'This secretariat will cut the umbilical cord of the dollar's power to enhance the value of the national currency.' Simultaneously, the official news agency IRNA reported that henceforth, the transfer of assets such as real estate, cars, various gold, silver, platinum, jewelry, and cryptocurrencies by non-commercial individuals will be subject to taxes ranging from 5 to 60 percent. Reza Ghorashi, an economist and professor at Stockton College in New Jersey, mentioned in an interview with the Persian section of Voice of America that the government's goal in imposing new regulations is to limit the stock market activities of ordinary individuals and to gain complete control over the stock market. Ghorashi also believes that the arrests of currency market activists are part of the government's efforts to control all channels of currency market transactions. Continuing efforts to control the currency market; the head of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic stated that entering the informal currency market is 'equivalent to money laundering'. The expansion of the scope of 'taxation' for citizens; from buying and selling property and cars to gold and cryptocurrencies. The market's reaction to the news of the establishment of a headquarters that aims to 'cut the umbilical cord of the dollar'; each US dollar approached 55,000 tomans. The repeated version of 'command economy'; prohibition of coin transactions without registration in the system.