A Member of Parliament: Arrests in the Teacher's Reserve Fund Case Will Continue

An Iranian member of parliament states that he has access to a list of 14 suspects in the Teacher's Reserve Fund case, of which only the names of seven have been disclosed so far, and he predicts that "chain arrests" in this case will continue. In an interview with the House of Nation website, affiliated with the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Hossein Maqsoodi, spokesperson for the Economic Corruption Combat Commission, also announced that members of the investigative committee regarding the Teacher's Reserve Fund will be introduced on Sunday, November 2. According to this member of parliament, reports compiled by the Ministry of Intelligence, the Judiciary, and the General Inspection Organization regarding the Teacher's Reserve Fund case are based on the confessions of the arrested individuals, and arrests in this case will continue. He also criticized the resigned Minister of Education for choosing to "deny" the issue of embezzlement in the Teacher's Reserve Fund instead of addressing it "in the shortest time and without hesitation." The Teacher's Reserve Fund, which is referred to as having "an 8 trillion tomans financial misconduct," has recently seen the confirmation of the arrest of Shahabuddin Ghandali, the CEO of this fund, by Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the first deputy of the judiciary. Four others have also been arrested in connection with this case in recent days, and the Tehran prosecutor announced on Saturday the arrest of two suspects in the Bank Sarmayeh case, which is one of the subsidiaries of the Teacher's Reserve Fund. According to Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the financial misconduct in this fund occurred between 2007 and 2013 during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. The Teacher's Reserve Fund has over 800,000 members affiliated with the Ministry of Education and pays annual interest on the monthly deposits of educators. Meanwhile, Maqsoodi's statements have also implicated the producers of the television series 'Shahrzad' in the financial misconduct case of the Teacher's Reserve Fund. As stated by this member of parliament, the wife of Shahabuddin Ghandali and Mohammad Imami, "as the producers of Shahrzad," owe money to this fund. He added that the arrest of Mohammad Imami, the producer of Shahrzad, was due to the "method of repaying the debt to the fund," and explained that Mr. Ghandali's wife and Mohammad Imami settled their debt by transferring a piece of land, "but according to existing documents, the monetary value of the transferred land is lower than their debt." The television series Shahrzad was released in 28 episodes for home viewing, and only Mohammad Imami is credited as the producer in its opening credits. In June of this year, Mr. Imami told Tasnim News Agency that planning for the production of the second season of this series had begun in July, and the second season of Shahrzad is expected to be produced in 22 episodes and ready for release. However, Mr. Imami's arrest has cast uncertainty over the fate of the second season of this series.