Conflicting Reports on Allocation of 1 Trillion Tomans to Shareholders of Padideh Shandiz

After the representative of Mashhad in the Parliament announced that, upon the order of Hassan Rouhani, an amount of 1 trillion tomans has been allocated for payment to the shareholders of the "Padideh Shandiz" company, the office of the President of Iran strongly denied this matter. However, several members of Parliament have stated that there exists a letter containing this content. According to Mehr News Agency, Masoud Pezeshkian, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, confirmed the existence of a letter from the President regarding this issue, and Ali Motahari, another Deputy Speaker, also stated that he has personally seen the letter. Nevertheless, the office of the President of Iran, in addition to denying the statements of the Mashhad representative, also published images of two letters in which there is no mention of the allocation of this amount. Two days ago, Nasrollah Pezeshkian, the representative of Mashhad in Parliament, announced that he had written a letter to the heads of the branches of power to resolve the problems of the shareholders of the Padideh Shandiz company, and among them, Hassan Rouhani had ordered in a "confidential letter" that 1 trillion tomans be allocated to this issue. Following the publication of these statements, the public relations office of the President of Iran issued a statement strongly denying Nasrollah Pezeshkian's remarks, writing: It is unclear what "intent and purpose" he is pursuing by repeating such claims. Shortly thereafter, this office published images of two letters regarding Padideh Shandiz that did not mention the allocation of 1 trillion tomans. However, in addition to Nasrollah Pezeshkian, who once again referred to the existence of a letter containing Hassan Rouhani's order and called for the pursuit of the "slander and lies" of the President's office, two Deputy Speakers of Parliament also emphasized the accuracy of his statements. The statement from Hassan Rouhani's office was published after several critics strongly protested the potential order of the President of Iran, calling it an "unjust appropriation of the budget." In several protests, especially in previous cases, it was mentioned that Rouhani's government was forced to allocate budget to creditors of financial institutions, including the Thamen al-Hojaj Institute, to confront protest gatherings. According to reports, of the six major financial and credit institutions that declared bankruptcy and whose creditors demanded compensation, five institutions are registered in Khorasan province. The Padideh Shandiz company is also one of these companies, which has seen repeated protests from its shareholders over the past three years. The subject of this case has been raised several times in the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, and Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the Minister of Interior, heads the follow-up committee. Two years ago, it was announced that Mohsen Pahlevan, the CEO of the "Padideh Shandiz" company, had been arrested.