The 31 Individuals Who Plundered Bank D Also Participated in Embezzlement at Bank Sarmayeh

The head of the investigative committee into the Martyrs Foundation announced that the list of 31 debtors of Bank Sarmayeh and Bank D, which belongs to the Martyrs Foundation, is the same, and they have "plundered" Bank D and "embezzled" from Bank Sarmayeh. Amir Khajasteh stated in an interview with ILNA news agency on Tuesday, December 21, that in one case of embezzlement from Bank Sarmayeh, a piece of land worth 100 billion tomans was "falsified" as collateral, and they obtained a loan of 1,100 billion tomans against it. Mr. Khajasteh emphasized that this amount is "no longer collectible." This representative's reference to the 31 common names in the list of debtors to both Bank Sarmayeh and Bank D comes while Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, the Tehran prosecutor, announced on Sunday, December 19, that the number of major debtors of Bank Sarmayeh is 31. He stated that 10 of these debtors are in custody. A week prior to these statements, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of parliament, published the details of debts and the identities of 20 major debtors of Bank Sarmayeh from 2006 to 2016 on Twitter, stating that the judiciary is lenient with these debtors. The head of the investigative committee into the Martyrs Foundation also reported that this case has been referred to Branch 7 of the Government Employees Court. Mr. Khajasteh mentioned that 500 billion tomans, which was embezzled from Bank D's exchange office and transferred to Dubai, has been returned. The head of the investigative committee from the 9th parliament had previously accused the exchange office of Bank D of transferring 500 billion tomans of its assets to Dubai, but these assets have now been returned to the country. The report of the investigation into the Martyrs Foundation was not read in the 9th parliament, and Mr. Khajasteh has repeatedly mentioned "political pressure" for the non-reading of this report. In contrast, Massoud Zaribafan, the head of the Martyrs Foundation during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration, stated that Mr. Khajasteh, who was one of the managers of the Martyrs Foundation in Hamadan province, was dismissed for using state facilities for "parliamentary election propaganda" and is politically motivated in his investigation into this foundation. Some members of parliament and politicians were "supporting" unauthorized financial institutions. On Tuesday, Valiollah Seif, the head of the Central Bank, announced in an interview with Mehr news agency that in disputes between the Central Bank and unauthorized financial institutions, in some cases, courts have ruled in favor of these institutions. He also mentioned that some politicians and members of parliament have, in some cases, "supported" unauthorized institutions. According to Mr. Seif, 90 members of parliament published a letter in "support" of the dissolved institution Thamen Al-Hojaj, emphasizing that the Central Bank should not repeatedly state that this institution is unauthorized. Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the 9th parliament, threatened on December 7 to disclose the names of those who received loans from the bankrupt financial institution Thamen Al-Hojaj, stating that most of these individuals are experienced judges and children of prominent clerics and political figures. This member of the 9th parliament stated that "the CEO of the Thamen Al-Hojaj financial institution has significant influence and even obtained an arrest warrant for Mr. Bahmani, the former head of the Central Bank." The head of the Central Bank further stated that the "Angels" credit cooperative, with 8,600 billion tomans in debt, has only about 4,000 billion tomans in assets. Mr. Seif also announced that one of the managers of the "unauthorized" Angels cooperative has "withdrawn 700 billion tomans from the cooperative's account for his own benefit." Central Bank officials had previously announced that 3,100 billion tomans of the Angels credit cooperative's assets and 30 personal buildings of its managers have been identified, of which 2,500 billion tomans are currently transferable to the Caspian institution. This cooperative is one of the eight cooperatives of the Caspian credit institution. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated in parliament on December 19 that "25% of the country's monetary market was in the hands of six violating cooperatives," and they "decided on profits whenever they wanted and disrupted the currency, gold, and real estate markets as they pleased." He emphasized that dealing with these financial institutions was very "difficult" and added that "everyone was pressuring us, and letters were being sent to us from all organizations. Strange people were making requests." A significant number of credit institutions in Iran have failed to meet their obligations to investors following bankruptcy or embezzlement, and the affected investors have protested in various locations across Iran.