Iran's Minister of Economy: A New 12 Trillion Toman Banking Fraud Discovered

Ali Tayebnia, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, announced on Saturday, December 15, the discovery of a "financial corruption" case within the country's banking network involving irregularities worth 12 trillion tomans. He stated that the suspects in this case have been arrested. According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), Tayebnia, speaking at a meeting on the Ministry of Economy's oversight to prevent financial corruption, said: "One case of financial corruption was discovered in recent months, with the total value of the irregular actions amounting to about 12 trillion tomans, which has been pursued in the judiciary, and nearly one hundred percent of this amount has returned to the bank, and currently, the defendants are in prison." The Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance explained that this 12 trillion tomans consists of the total circulation of bounced interbank checks and some bank guarantees. He added: "This issue led to the reform of the issuance of bank guarantees in the Monetary and Credit Council, and its system has been activated under the management of the Central Bank to prevent the issuance of fake guarantees, which, of course, occurred over a two-year period." Tayebnia did not provide further details regarding the identity of the suspects. Previously, Akbar Turkan, an advisor to the Iranian President, expressed despair over breaking the chain of corruption and favoritism, promising to expose a "tens of thousands of billions" corruption case in the near future. The 3 trillion toman corruption case is one of the most significant financial corruption cases in recent years that emerged during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. One of the main suspects in this case was executed on June 3 of this year. Babak Zanjani, a billionaire close to Ahmadinejad's government, who claims to own over 70 companies and tens of billions of dollars in assets inside and outside Iran, was also arrested last year on charges of "financial corruption" and sent to prison. Meanwhile, Iran ranked 136th in the "Global Corruption Perception Index" among 175 countries and regions in 2014. Previously, with the rise of Ahmadinejad's government, Iran's ranking in the "Corruption Perception Index" fell until 2009, when it reached its worst position at 168th in the world. Iran's best position in the past two decades dates back to 2003, when the country ranked 78th.