Second Court Session of Hossein Heydati; "Two Defendants of Bank Sarmayeh Have Fled"

In the second session of the court for Hossein Heydati, an investor in football, the presiding judge and the prosecutor's representative announced that Alireza Heydarabadi Pour, the former CEO of Bank Sarmayeh, and Ali Akbar Yaghi, one of Heydati's brokers and a defendant in the embezzlement case from Bank Sarmayeh, have fled. According to the news agency Mizan, Judge Masoudi Maqam, the judge of the Hossein Heydati case, reported on Tuesday, March 4, that an order to confiscate the five billion tomans bail of Ali Akbar Yaghi, who has fled, has been issued. He stated that most of the bail bonds of the defendants in this case were provided by the Heydati family. Meanwhile, Ghahramani, the prosecutor's representative, said that some former managers of Bank Sarmayeh were "very unhealthy" and that "currently, Khani is in prison and Heydarabadi has fled the country." Hossein Heydati is accused in the indictment of being indebted to the banks, including Bank Sarmayeh, for 1,500 billion tomans due to the principal and delay in repayment of loans he received. He is also accused of receiving part of these loans through shell companies and that some of the collateral he provided for the loans is worth 13 times less than the declared value due to bribery. According to the indictment, several workers, taxi drivers, and motorcycle messengers were appointed as CEOs of these shell companies. Mr. Heydati denied these accusations in the first court session. Before Mr. Heydati's trial, the Bank Sarmayeh trial had been held. Parviz Kazemi, the former chairman of the board of Bank Sarmayeh and Minister of Welfare in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, Ali Bakhshaiesh, the former CEO of Bank Sarmayeh, and Mohammad Reza Tosuli, a former legal member of Bank Sarmayeh, are the three main defendants in this case. In the sessions of this court, it was announced that Parviz Kazemi joined the board of directors of the Steel Azin Company in exchange for granting a 600 billion toman facility to Hossein Heydati. Also, according to the prosecutor's representative in the court session on Tuesday, Yasser Ziaei, as the deputy of Bank Sarmayeh and one of the managers of the Cultural Teachers' Savings Fund, was appointed as the CEO of the Ahvaz Rolling Steel Factory "as a reward for his services to Mr. Heydati" and received a "large amount" as well. Hossein Heydati has invested in several Iranian football teams, including Steel Azin Tehran and Semnan, Gahar Zagros Doroud, and Malavan Bandar Anzali. According to the indictment, Mehdi Mousavi Nejad, another defendant in this case who owned several companies and helped Mr. Heydati obtain these loans, received "93 billion tomans for his actions". Meanwhile, Mr. Mousavi Nejad claimed in the second court session that Mr. Heydati said: "The cost of my detention is expensive for the government. I have 1.2 million followers and supporters, and just as I brought the workers of the Ahvaz Pipe Rolling to the streets, I will bring these 1.2 million people to the streets as well." However, Mr. Heydati denied these statements. In this session, the representative of Bank Sarmayeh announced that Zahra Bakhtiari, an employee of this bank who warned in a letter to the legal manager of Bank Sarmayeh in 2013 about the loans received by Hossein Heydati, was "forced to resign" due to pressures from Mr. Heydati.