The embezzlement case, discovered last September, revolved around forged documents allegedly used by the directors of an Iranian investment company to secure loans from several banks. Those loans, totaling an astounding $2.6 billion, were then used to buy state-owned enterprises that were being privatized.
Thirty-nine people were tried for their involvement in the fraud.
“We are typing their sentences now and, according to the sentence that was issued, four of the accused in this case were sentenced to death,” Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai told the state news agency.
He did not name the individuals sentenced to death.
Two others were sentenced to life imprisonment and others received sentences ranging from 25 years on down, Mohseni-Ejai said.
The man described by Iranian media as the mastermind of the scheme is businessman Amir-Mansoor Khosravi. Presumably, he is one of those condemned to die.
Mahmud-Reza Khavari, the former head of Iran’s biggest bank, state-owned Bank Melli, resigned when the fraud was first revealed and fled to Canada, where records show he received citizenship a few years ago and owns a $3 million home in Toronto.
Iran has been seeking his extradition. Canadian officials have said nothing about the case. They have not addressed the extradition request publicly and have not responded to questions from the Iranian-Canadian community asking how Khavari received Canadian citizenship.
The huge case has been politically awkward for Iran’s leadership as it aims to show it is tough on corruption. The case raised questions about whether the government’s privatization drive has mainly benefited friends of the political elite.
Acknowledging the political damage, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi criticized financial corruption in comments last year but said the media should not “drag out the issue.”
“Some want to use this event to score points against the country’s officials,” Khamenehi said. “The people should know the issue will be followed up on.”
Mohseni-Ejai has held up the case as proof the Islamic Republic can deal appropriately with high-level fraud. “The government, Majlis and all available avenues were used to pursue the issue so that corruption can be fought in an open manner,” he said earlier this month.
But one of the defendants complained that the Judiciary was pursuing low-level players in the fraud vigorously while senior officials involved in the scandal had not been touched.
“Many guilty bank officials are outside jail right now. Why are you able to put us on trial and have done nothing with them?” the unnamed steel company official said, according to the Fars news agency.