Mehregan Amir-Khosravi, one of the several Amir-Khosravi brothers whose family business is embroiled in the $2.6 billion scandal, immigrated to Montreal shortly before the scandal became public in September.
Another person implicated in the scandal is the former chairman of Bank Melli, Mahmud-Reza Khavari, who resigned his post and fled to Toronto when the scandal first became public.
He has been a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen since 2005 and is now living in his $3 million home in a posh neighborhood. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries, which means Khavari will not be sent to Iran to face charges of fraud.
Before Amir-Khosravi and his wife arrived in Canada, two of their children had been studying there and living in the Montreal home.
Their daughter Hiva, reportedly a student at John Abbott College, purchased the $980,000 house in the Dollard-des-Ormeaux district of Montreal in July, according to property records.
Hafteh, a publication of the Iranian community in Montreal, broke the story of his presence.
Muhammad Ali Abdollah-zadeh, a brother-in-law of Amir-Khosravi, said that the couple had been trying to immigrate to Canada for the past four years.
Amir-Khosravi’s brother, Mahfarid, has been detained in Iran on charges of being the central figure in the $2.6 billion fraud scandal that involves several of Iran’s top banks and high-raking executives. Dozens of people have been implicated in the case since it was exposed.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada is looking into whether there is ground to revoke Khavari’s citizenship, and the Canadian parliament is conducting its own investigation of how Khavari got Canadian citizenship in the first place.
MPs grilled federal officials over how Khavari was able to make it to Canada after being implicated in Iran, prompting questions on whether problematic individuals are adequately screened before they are allowed into Canada.
“There’s something here that has to be looked at,” said Conservative Senator Daniel Lang.
But Jeff Yaworski, an official of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, replied:
“We do investigate threats to the security of Canada, we do investigate individuals who are in Canada regardless of their citizenship, and we do provide advice to immigration officials where there is a security concern,”
Officials are saying there is a possibility Khavari might be stripped of his citizenship if he misrepresented himself in his citizenship application.