investigation for tax evasion and pornography as well as running a Ponzi scheme, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.
ISNA cited no source for its news report. Five officials of the company in Tehran—four Iranian nationals and a dual Swedish-Iranian citizen—were arrested in August and are still being held.
ISNA said investigators had been probing another firm but dropped that prosecution for lack of evidence. ISNA said the managers then closed the firm that was under suspicion and created Oriflame. But Oriflame has been in existence in Sweden since 1967.
ISNA said Oriflame sold products for more than the listed price. It wasn’t clear whom it was accusing of that; Oriflame is a direct sales firm with commissioned representatives going into homes to sell cosmetics, so the sales women could overcharge.
But ISNA said the authorities have charged the Swedish firm itself with tax evasion.
And it said the Culture Ministry has filed charges against the firm after finding Oriflame brochures with “pornographic” pictures. It wasn’t clear what was meant by pornographic; the firm’s sales literature contains many photos of women with exposed hair and bare arms.
