News reports have outlined the scam in only vague and sometimes contradictory terms.
Bank Saderat was identified as one of the victims, but the other seven banks were not named.
The reports said the scam was masterminded by a single individual, unhelpfully identified in most of the media only as “Mr. X.”
However, the daily Kayhan Monday named the accused as Amir-Mansur Aria, a billionaire tycoon whose economic empire of three dozen companies ranges from mineral water to a football club to meat imports from Brazil. (See story at bottom of this story.)
Some of the reports said he used forged letters of credit that allowed him to buy up major assets, including the Khuzestan Steel Co., which was recently privatized.
Saeed Laylaz, an economic commentator in Tehran, told The Associated Press the scheme used government money to privatize public assets.
The scam may have political overtones. Kayhan said Aria had links to Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, who runs President Ahmadi-nejad’s office and is the man most hated by the president’s opponents. Mashai is demonized in Iran as the leader of a “deviant current” that is misleading the president and guiding him down all the wrong paths, distorting the revolution and running roughshod over its goals. Whether Aria actually has any links to Mashai remains to be seen, but there clearly is an effort to link Mashai to corruption.
The scam was confirmed Sunday by Central Bank Governor Mahmud Bahmani, who said, “Mr. X ran his master plan from June 2009 through August, pocketing around 28 trillion rials ($2.6 billion).”
He didn’t say if Mr. X was now in jail or how much the government had recovered of the stolen assets.
Intelligence Minister Hey-dar Moslehi said multiple people had been arrested. He didn’t say if Aria was one of them.
Bank Saderat President Mohammad Jahromi acknowledged that his bank was one of those defrauded. He said his bank uncovered the fraud just weeks ago.
Mostafa Pur-Mohammadi, head of the General Inspectorate, was quoted as labeling the fraud “the most unprecedented financial corruption case” in the history of the Islamic Republic, which has faced many financial scandals.
Majlis Deputy Ahmad Tavakkoli, a respected conservative lawmaker, saw the case as more than just one man’s corruption. He spoke of a “terrible corruption disease in the banking system and administrative apparatus.”
Judiciary Chairman Sadeq Larijani said the people implicated in the scam had been arrested before the media got wind of the story. He seemed intent on defending the Judiciary from assertions that it did nothing until the crime became publicly known. He did not say how many people had been arrested.
Bank Saderat’s Jahromi said the principal behind the scam appeared to have exploited his relationships with bank officials to obtain loans to carry out his fraud. Saleh Nikbakht, a prominent Tehran lawyer, said the main cause behind most embezzlement schemes in Iran in the favoritism that bank officials commonly show powerful people.
But Suhail Bur, head of the Central Bank’s Accounts Department, was quoted as saying the principal behind the fraud was a major officer of the Central Bank itself who exploited his position of authority to sidetrack bills issued by the Central Bank to other banks and then sell them to smaller private banks at discounted prices.
The biggest previous fraud case was believed to total $146 million and involve a businessman and former adviser to the Majlis Economy Committee who is now serving an 11-year prison term.