Main Accused in Petrochemical Case: You Burned the Pieces to Bypass Sanctions

During the second session of the court hearing regarding the "corruption in petrochemicals" case held on Saturday, March 9, in Tehran, Reza Hamzelou, the former CEO of the Petrochemical Trading Company and the first accused in this case, rejected the allegations against him, stating that with the formation of this case, "a series of pieces" in bypassing sanctions were burned. This case, which the Shargh newspaper described as "the largest fraud in the history of Iran," has 14 defendants, the main accusation against them being "participation and complicity in major economic disruption in the petrochemical sector and distribution of currency obtained from the export of petrochemical products" amounting to six billion and 656 million euros. At the beginning of the second session of the court, Abbas Hosseini, the prosecutor's representative, read the continuation of the indictment, stating: "We have largely broken the sanctions, but we have not been as successful in combating corruption and corrupt individuals as we should have been." Abbas Hosseini also quoted the Ministry of Oil, stating that "the defendants in the case, under the pretext of bypassing sanctions, deposited the currency obtained from the sale of petrochemical products into the accounts of the product-owning companies in rials without any authorization." According to reports, the defendants in this case mainly include managers or individuals and entities related to the Petrochemical Trading Company (PCC), and the accusations occurred between 2010 and 2013. This company was privatized in 2009, removing it from the list of state-owned companies, and Reza Hamzelou was its first CEO in the new era. In the second session of the court, the prosecutor's representative identified the "main partner of Reza Hamzelou" as the sixth accused, Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al-Aqa, the CEO of Deniz and Hetra Trade companies. Three of the defendants in this case, including Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al-Aqa, are currently outside Iran and are being tried in absentia. Sheikh Al-Islami's name was also mentioned in Iranian media last year; these media reported that she failed to fulfill her contract with a company affiliated with the "Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters" and went to Canada despite being in debt under this contract. Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami has not yet reacted to these accusations. The name of the seventh accused in this case has also been previously mentioned: Amin Qureshi Sarvestani, who was arrested in the U.S. in 2014 and imprisoned for selling satellite equipment to Iran. After the reading of the indictment, a significant portion of the court session on Saturday was dedicated to the defense of Reza Hamzelou, the first accused in this case. Mr. Hamzelou vehemently defended the performance of the Petrochemical Trading Company during his tenure and also in the subsequent period, rejecting all allegations. He denied the charge of "disruption of the country's economic system," stating that if such an accusation had occurred, it would have been by the National Petrochemical Company, which "if it had reflected the realities and resolutions, these problems would not have arisen, and this case would not have formed, and a series of pieces would not have burned." Reza Hamzelou did not provide an explanation regarding the "burning of a series of pieces in bypassing sanctions." Iranian officials, prior to reaching the JCPOA, resorted to opaque trade and banking transactions to reduce the pressure of UN and U.S. economic sanctions on Tehran, using cover individuals and seemingly non-governmental entities for the sale of oil and petrochemical products. The opacity of the sources and costs of Iran's economy, especially during the two administrations of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, led to the emergence of figures later accused of "embezzlement," "acquiring illegitimate wealth," and "disruption of the economic system of the country." Among these individuals is Babak Zanjani, who has been sentenced to death. In Saturday's court, Reza Hamzelou also objected to the incorrectness of part of the indictment concerning "the difference between foreign-origin and domestic-origin currency," stating: "You should give us a medal for not allowing this currency to leave the country." Babak Zanjani had previously made a similar claim, stating that he should be rewarded for helping the country's economy under sanctions. At the end of Saturday's court session, Judge Asadollah Masoudi did not specify the exact date of the third session, stating that the date would be "announced later."