Third Court Session of Heydati; 'Opening 242 Accounts for an 8-Year-Old Son' of One of the Defendants in One Day

In the third session of the court for Hossein Heydati, a football investor, the prosecutor's representative announced that Mehdi Mousavi-Nejad, one of the defendants in this case, 'opened 242 accounts for his 8-year-old son in one day and transferred money in one day.' The third session addressing the charges against Hossein Heydati and 10 defendants for 'disruption of the country's economic system' was held on Sunday, March 10, in the third branch of the special economic court presided over by Judge Masoudi Moghaddam. In this session, Gharamani, the prosecutor's representative, stated that Mehdi Mousavi-Nejad 'opened 242 accounts in one day for his 8-year-old son and transferred money in one day.' He did not disclose how much money was transferred with these accounts. According to the indictment, Mehdi Mousavi-Nejad, who owns several companies and assisted Mr. Heydati in obtaining loans, received '93 billion tomans for his services.' 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 obtaining part of these loans through shell companies, and 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 couriers were appointed as CEOs of these shell companies. In the second court session, the judge announced that Alireza Heydarabadi-Pour, the former CEO of Bank Sarmayeh, and Ali Akbar Yaghi, one of Mr. Heydati's brokers and a defendant in the embezzlement case from Bank Sarmayeh, had fled. Following that, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, stated that Mr. Yaghi 'has not fled and is in the hospital for surgery.' However, in the Sunday court session, Gharamani, the prosecutor's representative, stated that he 'escaped from the hospital and is inside the country, and sent a letter last night saying he is afraid to attend the court.' Meanwhile, the judge announced that Mr. Yaghi 'has been threatened by some defendants,' and an audio file of this 'threat' will be presented in the next court session. Prior to Mr. Heydati's court session, 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. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a Tehran representative in the parliament, wrote on his Twitter page: 'In the report of the investigation into Bank Sarmayeh, there are some names and relationships that I hope the court will address their accusations as well, otherwise, I will publish them to honor my oath.' Mr. Sadeghi did not provide further details about these individuals. He had previously published the names of some debtors of Bank Sarmayeh. This parliament representative also accused the Iranian judiciary of 'colluding' with bank debtors and stated that he had published the list of major debtors of Bank Sarmayeh for 'transparency and public awareness.'