Kalameh Reports on Financial Corruption Case of Former Iranian Police Chief

The Kalameh website, close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, reported that the reason for the dismissal of Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, the former commander of the police force, was the discovery of a financial corruption case worth 1.2 trillion tomans in the Police Cooperation Foundation. The report, published on Tuesday, May 29, also stated that 'one of the family members' of Mr. Ahmadi Moghaddam has been 'arrested' in connection with this case. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, appointed Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari as the commander of the police force on Monday, March 9, 2015. This comes despite reports that Mr. Ahmadi Moghaddam's leadership of the police had been extended for another year in June 2014. According to Kalameh, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam was 'detained for at least two days' before his dismissal, and 'at least twelve senior officials of the Police Cooperation Foundation and generals associated with this group, including General Q., the former CEO of this foundation, are in custody.' The reference to 'General Q' may refer to Abolfazl Ghanbarpour, the former CEO of the Police Cooperation Foundation, who was replaced by Hamid Reza Eshragh in April 2014. According to Kalameh and other reports, the Police Cooperation Foundation is one of the 'wealthiest' foundations close to security and military institutions. Last year, some Iranian parliament members called for the approval of an investigation plan into this foundation, but no report on the approval of this plan has been published so far. Meanwhile, Mohammad Reza Pourabrahimi, a representative from Kerman in the parliament, without mentioning details, stated that the 'violations' in the Police Cooperation Foundation have been acknowledged by the police's information protection unit, and all of them have been 'confirmed.' Additionally, Mostafa Afzali Fard, a member of the board of the Article 90 Commission of the parliament, reported on April 12 that the commission is reviewing a complaint against the Police Cooperation Foundation. He mentioned that 'a manager in a company... under the Police Cooperation Foundation has been arrested, and the family of this individual has complained to the Article 90 Commission about the treatment of the arrested individual and the lack of defense from the foundation.' Kalameh's report also mentioned 'disruption in the currency market... and failure to deposit the money from oil sales into the treasury' as part of the 'corruption' that occurred in the Police Cooperation Foundation. Fars News Agency reported on January 25, 2014, referring to the budget audit report of 2012, that the police, despite selling a shipment of crude oil worth $185 million and receiving the payment, refused to pay its debt to the National Iranian Oil Company. Meanwhile, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam confirmed on Tuesday, October 7, 2014, the details of the sale of two shipments of Iranian oil worth $240 million by this military institution during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, stating that six million dollars of this money has not yet been deposited into the government treasury. According to Mr. Ahmadi Moghaddam, $180 million of this amount was directly spent on 'salary shortages' for police personnel and was not deposited into the government treasury. Kalameh's report also stated that 'the sudden dismissal of one of the deputy mayors of Tehran' is related to the discovery of this 'corruption' case in the police force. According to this website, there are also 'rumors' about the 'connection' of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the mayor of Tehran, with this case, and 'the traces of several IRGC generals, most of whom were transferred to the police during Qalibaf's command and some of whom went to the municipality with Qalibaf, are also evident in this case.' The website did not mention the name and position of the dismissed deputy mayor of Tehran. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf changed some of his deputies, including his financial, urban development, and urban planning deputies, in April. Official news sources in Iran have not yet reacted to the report published on Kalameh.