Tehran Police Raid Currency Exchange Centers; '90 Currency Brokers' Arrested

On Wednesday, February 14, coinciding with a sharp decline in the value of the rial against foreign currencies, Tehran police raided currency exchange centers in the capital, arresting nearly 'one hundred unauthorized exchange offices' and blocking 755 currency accounts. The police actions temporarily led to a slight decrease in the dollar's exchange rate against the rial, with the dollar dropping by 60 tomans to 4718 tomans, the euro rising by one toman to 6165 tomans, the pound falling by 43 tomans to 6987 tomans, and the dirham increasing by one toman to 1371 tomans. Hossein Rahimi, the chief of Tehran police, stated that nearly '90 currency brokers' were arrested within 10 minutes, and that a month was spent monitoring these individuals. He also mentioned that police forces would be stationed in Sabzeh Meydan, Afshar Passage, and Monouchehri Street to prevent further brokerage activities in these areas. Regarding the charges against the arrested individuals, he said: 'The detainees have caused the most disruption to the country's economic system due to greed and profit, and the judiciary must take decisive action against them.' Rahimi noted that other agencies had 'requested' police intervention, and in addition to the arrests, 16 exchange offices had received official warnings. When asked if 'Jamshid Bismillah' was arrested in this operation, he replied that a person named 'S', who had replaced him, was arrested on Wednesday. The name Jamshid Bismillah was first mentioned by Mohammad Reza Rahimi, the former first vice president of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed that 'Jamshid Bismillah determines the exchange rate in Iran's free market.' Mahmoud Bahmani, the then governor of the Central Bank, did not respond to this claim at the time but later stated in a press interview that 'people like Jamshid Bismillah had no role in the market.' Meanwhile, some sources reported the freezing of accounts of several currency brokers. The Fars news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying: 'In the continuation of legal actions against destructive speculation in the currency market, 755 accounts of currency brokers have been blocked and frozen.' This 'official' stated that 'the total financial turnover of these accounts was nearly 20 trillion tomans.' The decline in the value of the rial, which began in September, has accelerated recently. Valiollah Seif, the head of the Central Bank, warned the currency market last week not to 'move against the rial.' However, the price of the dollar in the Iranian market rose again, leading to a further decline in the value of the rial. In the Iranian Parliament, the currency market was also one of the main topics of discussion on Wednesday. Behrouz Namati, the spokesman for the parliamentary board, stated in an open session: '90 representatives have warned the president about the currency issue. We do not know who to address regarding the exchange rate and the disorder in the currency market.' Following this warning, Namati requested the Speaker of Parliament to put this issue on the agenda. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Parliament, also asked the parliamentary board to follow up on this issue. Mostafa Kaveh-Kabir, a member of the Hope faction in Parliament, also requested special measures from the government to address the rising prices of the dollar and gold. Kaveh-Kabir stated: 'Since the revolution, the dollar rate has risen from seven tomans to over 4900 tomans, indicating that the value of the national currency has decreased by more than 20 percent. Meanwhile, the dollar price in neighboring countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, remains stable.' The turmoil in the currency market is also related to the ambiguous status of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the West, known as the JCPOA. Donald Trump, the U.S. president, is opposed to the JCPOA, and the possibility of renewed sanctions against Iran has worried Iranian economic actors.