Summoning of Shasta CEO in Mobile Phone Import Case

The first deputy and spokesperson of the Iranian judiciary announced the formation of cases against 40 companies and the summoning of the CEO of the Social Security Investment Company (Shasta) in connection with "violations" in mobile phone imports using government currency. According to the IRNA news agency, Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje'i stated on Tuesday, August 2, that cases have been formed against 40 companies regarding mobile phone imports with government currency, and their "violations" have been "proven." Mr. Eje'i mentioned that "issuing fictitious invoices" and "selling at prices higher than the government currency" were among the "violations" of these companies. He also stated that one of the companies affiliated with Shasta is among the "violating" companies. Mr. Eje'i reported that for this reason, the CEO of Shasta has been summoned and "claimed he is unaware of the details of this transaction but promised to respond after an investigation." The spokesperson and first deputy of the judiciary also announced that 50 individuals related to "order registration" and currency trading have been banned from leaving the country. Mr. Eje'i had previously stated that several "major violations" occurred in mobile phone imports using government currency, resulting in "several individuals being arrested and some companies being sealed." On July 3, the Iranian Ministry of Communications published a list of companies that received government currency at the official rate for mobile phone imports, stating that these companies received 220 million euros in government currency, but only 75 million euros worth of phones were imported into the country. Following this, reports of "violations" in the import of cars and other goods imported with government currency have also emerged. On Tuesday, the spokesperson of the judiciary also stated that 57 companies have committed "violations" regarding "illegal order registration" for cars. Mohammad Shariatmadari, the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade, announced on Tuesday night that the names of 100 companies and individuals involved in "illegal car order registration" will be published. This list was released by some Iranian news agencies on Wednesday. Mr. Shariatmadari also mentioned that these individuals or companies may not have personally registered car orders, but individuals may have used their accounts to place orders. In this context, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, stated on Tuesday that in Bahman 1396 (January 2018), customs informed the Ministry of Industry about the issue of "illegal car order registration," and afterward, this ministry discovered "274 unauthorized IPs" in the car order registration system. According to Mr. Jafari Dolatabadi, the Ministry of Industry's security department wrote several letters to the country's security agency from the time this issue was discovered until the formation of the case, but the security agency did not respond to these letters; while examining the IPs could have revealed corruption earlier. The Tehran prosecutor did not mention the name of this "security agency," but his reference could be to the Ministry of Intelligence. From July 19 to December 29, 1396 (July 9 to December 19, 2017), while the car import order registration website affiliated with the Ministry of Industry was blocked, more than six thousand orders for expensive cars were registered on this site, and the General Inspection Organization of the country believes that the reason for this "illegal order registration" was the hacking of the order registration site. The spokesperson of the judiciary announced on Tuesday that five officials from the Ministry of Industry, including a general director, have been arrested in connection with the "illegal" car order registration, and four of them remain in custody. According to Mr. Eje'i, those arrested are current or former managers or associates of the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade; one general director of the Trade Development Organization and one of his deputies are among the detainees. Additionally, a designer of the car order registration system, who Mr. Eje'i stated has "recently been dismissed," and a woman who was simultaneously involved in the orders in this organization have also been arrested. Meanwhile, the Tehran prosecutor stated on Tuesday that Fereshteh Tangestani, one of the defendants in this case, had left the country before the case was formed. According to the previous government policy, the currency needed for the import of all goods was provided at a rate of 4200 tomans per dollar. This action drew criticism from several experts, and Akbar Turkan, an advisor to the Iranian president, stated that importers sell goods imported with the 4200 toman currency at prices equivalent to 8000 tomans per dollar using "a thousand tricks and schemes." Ultimately, the government accepted the failure of this policy in July and created a "secondary currency market," which means a three-tier currency system. In this plan, exporters who previously did not offer their currency in the "Integrated Currency System" (NIMA) now offer it at an agreed rate so that it does not pertain to unnecessary goods that include the 4200 toman currency. However, no report has yet been published by the government regarding the activities of this market and the currency prices within it.