Iran intelligence officials have allegedly stolen $21 million in crypto-currency while pretending to investigate a corruption case. According to Iran International, the Pasdar intelligence arm was investigating the CEO of Cryptoland, Sina Estavi, whose crypto exchange was shut down in May 2021.
After his arrest, Mizan news reported that about 51,000 plaintiffs submitted complaints against him. The BRG token, which was developed by Estavi and his platform, collapsed after he was arrested. Blockchain records also showed that a day after he was arrested, six billion BRG tokens were removed from his wallet before news of his arrest was announced.
According to reports, the moved tokens were then sold off by Pasdar officers, netting them tens of millions of dollars, which they kept for themselves. Iran International said an expert appointed by a court identified two key figures in the operation, Mehdi Hajipour and Mehdi Badi, who are both senior interrogators in the economic branch of the Pasdaran.
The expert revealed that a wallet under the control of Hajipour sold about $21 million worth of BRG tokens. In March 2022, Pasdar counterintelligence agents apprehended Hajipour in a sting operation. He was caught accepting $10,000 from Estavi, whom he had tricked into thinking he was buying back the stolen tokens from a third party. Unbeknownst to Estavi, the third-party was a fake identity that was created by Hajipour. According to court documents, before the theft, Hajipour’s assets were worth about 10 billion rials ($40,000 at the time).
Four months after the theft, his fortune had climbed 60-fold to 600 billion rials, which he had spent on real estate, gold and luxury vehicles. Meanwhile, the second suspect in the case, Mehdi Badi, was a senior interrogator who had been operating under the alias of Dr. Ebadi. His name appeared in many cases related to corruption investigations at the Pasdar economic department.
According to court documents, two other interrogators from the Pasdar intelligence organization, Majid Jahan Parto and Majid Tabatabai, were also named as members of the network. The document listed four other accomplices who provided help to the gang of interrogators, usually assisting them by forging documents. The fates of the individuals are still hanging in the balance, with Hajipour’s appeal rejected by the court in September 2022.
However, Sina Estavi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered by the court to return the embezzled funds. He had initially fled the country after being under pressure from the group of investigators, who had stolen the funds the victims claimed. Half of the victims have received their funds, with about $14 million paid from Estavi’s account while he was in prison. Meanwhile, around 25,000 others are awaiting repayment.
Most of the remaining funds meant to pay the creditors are from the stolen tokens, which are yet to be returned by the group of interrogators that sold them for profit, Iran International said.
