Release of Wealthy Debtors of the Teachers' Savings Fund 'to Pay Arrears'

The CEO of the Teachers' Savings Fund stated that some bank debtors of this fund, who are 'wealthy individuals', have been released to 'convert their assets into cash and pay their arrears'. According to a report on Tuesday (May 7), Morteza Nikdel made these remarks during a press conference following the discussion of embezzlement from this fund in the debates of the candidates for the twelfth presidential election. Ebrahim Raisi, during the second televised debate, hinted at Hassan Rouhani, saying that the Teachers' Savings Fund has been 'plundered'. Hassan Rouhani also filed a complaint against him to the Election Advertising Commission for making these statements. According to the report, Mr. Nikdel welcomed the release of these individuals, adding that 'fortunately, those who have taken loans are mostly wealthy individuals' and for this reason, they are able to pay their arrears. He stated that 'two-thirds of the loans were mainly given during the previous administration [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]' and 'one-third of the loans were given after 2013'. Nikdel added that 'the judiciary is fully behind this issue and it has been stated that debtors must come and repay the amounts by May 15'. The CEO of the Teachers' Savings Fund also explained the reason for the change of the CEO of Bank Sarmayeh, stating that 'reports of violations during his tenure had been sent to supervisory bodies'. He also spoke of 'pressure' from some members of the previous parliament for the continuation of Mohammad Reza Khani, the CEO of Bank Sarmayeh. The CEO of the Teachers' Savings Fund added that 'while the investigative committee was not stationed at the bank, it was established with the arrival of the new CEO... those representatives... believed that we changed the CEO to disrupt the investigation'. As Nikdel mentioned, '37,000 pages of material' have been provided to the investigative committee in this regard. In another part of his remarks, the CEO of the Teachers' Savings Fund stated that 'additional pressure from bank debtors, who are mainly influential and have taken loans from other banks, and number between eight to ten, is being exerted on the CEO to exchange their seized assets, but the new CEO has not yielded'. The Teachers' Savings Fund has over 800,000 members affiliated with the Ministry of Education and pays them annual profits from the monthly deposits of teachers. The 'Sarmayeh' bank is also considered a subsidiary of this fund. Earlier, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in Parliament, announced that financial violations in this fund occurred between 2007 and 2013 during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. According to Mr. Sadeghi, when the fund was handed over to Rouhani's government in 2013, it was revealed that during the period from 2007 to 2013, this fund had '4 trillion tomans of uncollectible assets'. Alireza Salimi, the secretary of the Education Commission of Parliament, also stated that the amount of violations in the Teachers' Savings Fund is likely to exceed 12 trillion tomans. Previously, an 8 trillion toman violation in the Teachers' Savings Fund had been mentioned.