Abbas Mirali: From Kizur to Thamen al-Hojaj

These days, the names Abbas Mirali and Mehdi Ramazani are mentioned as the CEO and board member of the Thamen al-Hojaj Institute. Two individuals from two families with different backgrounds. Ahmad Ramazani, Mehdi Ramazani's brother, is one of the major investors and businessmen, and in fact, the initial supporter of the Thamen al-Hojaj Institute, became acquainted with Abbas Mirali during his detention in the 1990s. Abbas Mirali also has a brother and sister born in the village of Kalateh Mirali in Sabzevar. Hadi Mirali, a police officer, was the most famous person in the village. He retired as the commander of the police force in Sabzevar. Abbas Mirali, however, did not have a high education and was able to eventually obtain a diploma with the help of his brother. He was the dehdar (village chief) of one of the districts of Sabzevar called Kizur until he married the daughter of Gholam Hossein Ebrahimi, the head of the military court in Khorasan province, and entered the judicial system as an administrative staff and secretary of the special court for clergy. As Mojtaba Lotfi, a student of Ayatollah Montazeri, wrote, Ebrahimi, who later became the Friday prayer leader of Sabzevar and passed away in December 2016, was the religious judge of the special court for clergy and the brother-in-law of Ali Razini, the former head of the special court for clergy. He was also a judge in Ahmad Qabel's court. In a famous photo that has recently been published of Abbas Mirali, related to the funeral of Ebrahimi, his father-in-law, former head of the special court for clergy Mohammad Salimi, and judges of cases such as those of Abdollah Nouri and Hassan Youssefi Ashkouri, as well as Ahmad Alam al-Huda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, the Attorney General of the country, and Ali Mozaffari, the head of the judiciary of Khorasan Razavi province, are present. Ali Razini (second from the left) is seen at the funeral of Gholam Hossein Ebrahimi in December 2016. Rababeh Ebrahimi, the daughter of the former Friday prayer leader of Sabzevar and Mirali's wife, is another board member. A housewife whose name appears as a board member only because of her marriage to Mirali. According to some of Mirali's close associates, his acquaintance with Ahmad Ramazani began in the 1990s when he was the secretary of the special court for clergy, and he helped Ramazani during this case. Ahmad Ramazani served as the district governor of Sarakhs for a while after the revolution and then entered economic activities. Some say he was an arms dealer and had relations with the Russians, which led to his arrest and the confiscation of his assets. Hamid Hosseini, a member of the Chamber of Commerce and brother of Mohammad Hosseini, the Minister of Culture in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, however, has a completely different narrative and denies these accusations. He states that Ahmad Ramazani had economic activities in the Soviet Union and had pried into places that endangered the interests of some individuals. Hosseini has written about Ahmad Ramazani that he is "one of the top economic activists in the country in terms of intelligence, cleverness, and intellectual capability, and once handed over all his life's assets, which included several large factories such as Atlas TV, Izh Rural, Homa Weaving, etc., to the country's officials and left the country empty-handed. He managed to design and launch several large projects in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan through hard work and effort." Some also speak of Ahmad Ramazani's involvement in a smuggling case in 2005 during Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's command of the police force, a case that Hassan Rouhani also mentioned in presidential debate. However, Hamid Hosseini states that he was not in Iran at that time to have a role in this issue. Ahmad Ramazani's name also came up during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, and Rahim Zare, the spokesman for the Economic Commission of the Parliament, stated that the government illegally awarded a $700 million project for the construction of the Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway to Ahmad Ramazani, the manager of "Pars Energy Iran". Ahmad Ramazani, however, denied Karim Zare's claims and wrote that he has "successfully concluded millions of dollars in contracts" in Turkmenistan and has paid over $12 million in taxes in that country. Ahmad Ramazani also has two brothers named Mahmoud and Mehdi. Mahmoud worked with him, and Mehdi's name has been mentioned as a board member of the Thamen al-Hojaj financial and credit institution. According to some accounts, Ahmad had actually provided the initial capital for this institution to Abbas Mirali. There was also a regular relationship between the Thamen al-Hojaj Institute and companies affiliated with Ahmad Ramazani. For instance, in some of the "Izh Rural" factories where Chinese motorcycles are assembled, Thamen al-Hojaj institutions are also present. Nevertheless, Mirali became the CEO of this institution, perhaps because he had governmental affiliations that made the work easier. He also practically partnered with some political figures to advance his work. The Shargh newspaper mentioned Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, stating that he received 124 billion tomans in loans from Thamen al-Hojaj. Although the Shargh newspaper did not mention Manouchehr Mottaki, he denied this report and threatened to sue the newspaper. The Shargh newspaper's list includes the initials of several officials and their close associates. Being from Khorasan is a common feature of some individuals who have had connections with Mirali, including Hamid Sadr al-Sadat, the former head of the public duty of NAJA, who was previously the deputy of intelligence of the Khorasan police district. According to the Shargh newspaper, the son of Hamid Sadr al-Sadat received 100 billion tomans from this institution as his 30-year salary, and his wife and daughter took out loans of two billion tomans. According to this newspaper, Mr. Sadr al-Sadat's wife borrowed about one billion tomans from this institution, and his daughter was employed there and is indebted over two billion tomans for overdue loans to this institution. This institution has also purchased properties from Mr. Sadr al-Sadat's wife and daughter at dozens of times the real price. For instance, a 210-square-meter land in Yazd was purchased for 50 billion tomans. However, he denied this report from the Shargh newspaper, stating that the total loans received from the institution were in several stages and about 880 million tomans. The Shargh newspaper, mentioning the initials of two presenters, also spoke of their role in this case. Subsequently, journalists on social media decoded these initials and wrote that Mehran Modiri, a presenter and producer of comedy programs, borrowed about three billion tomans from this institution, of which 800 million tomans have been returned, and about 600 million tomans were received as a gift. Ehsan Alikhani, another television presenter, also received "three billion tomans in the form of advertising expenses" from this institution. Alikhani, however, stated that this amount was deposited into his account as a producer for the fees of "hundreds of crew members and production costs". He did not disclose the amount allocated to himself and wrote that "the public relations, social group, and financial manager of Channel Three should publish the documents and contracts if deemed appropriate." Mehran Modiri's lawyer also announced that his client has sued the Shargh newspaper and the Film Online website. However, Mirali's supporters include a longer list, including Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani, the representative of Sabzevar in the eighth parliament and the father-in-law of Mostafa Vaez Tabasi, who has also been among his supporters. The story of financial and credit institutions in Khorasan Razavi province, however, is not limited to the Thamen al-Hojaj Institute and has a long history. Bahman Ahmadi Amoui, a journalist, wrote in his book "Loan Funds and Credit Institutions" that in 2004, the Cooperative Administration of Khorasan issued licenses for 110 credit institutions, and according to reports from the Central Bank, "30 paper institutions that did not exist also received licenses." The Asgarieh Credit Cooperative was the first credit cooperative, followed by cooperatives such as Thamen al-Hojaj and Thamen al-Alemeh. According to this book's report and statements from Central Bank officials, the situation progressed to the point where a group of those who requested credit cooperative licenses assigned a group to "dress in shrouds" and disrupt Khatami's speech in Mashhad. Previously, there were also discussions in the sixth parliament and government to organize loan funds and credit cooperatives until in 2004, the law on "regulating non-organized monetary markets" was passed. However, the approval of the regulations of this law fell to Ahmadinejad's government, which defended loan funds and credit cooperatives. Hamid Tehranfar, one of the Central Bank's deputies, stated that Parviz Davoodi, Ahmadinejad's first deputy, did not issue these regulations for a long time. The crisis of financial and credit institutions that began during Mohammad Khatami's second term intensified in 2010 and peaked during Hassan Rouhani's government, to the extent that, according to Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government has so far paid 35 trillion tomans, equivalent to the budget of one year of the Ministry of Education or several smaller ministries, to the victims of financial and credit institutions. In this context, the CEO of the Thamen al-Hojaj financial institution was arrested, a judicial official stated that all defendants in the Thamen al-Hojaj case were released on bail, and representatives of Rouhani answered parliament members' questions about financial institutions. One of the defendants of the Thamen al-Hojaj financial institution threatened to reveal the names of loan recipients.