May 14, 2021
Iranian prosecutors have charged Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank during President Rohani’s first term, with mismanaging tens of billions of dollars in bank funds.
Tehran Prosecutor Ali Alqasi-Mehr accused Seif, who led the Central Bank from 2013 to 2018, of “wasting” more than $30 billion and 60 tons of gold reserves, the Tasnim news agency reported on May 5.
Seif’s case, which has been under investigation since shortly after his sacking in mid-2018, will now head to a court set up to rule on economic crimes, with the banker being accused of “repeatedly violating regulations” and of “dereliction of duty,” but apparently not of siphoning off any funds for his personal benefit.
“One of the important cases that we pursued at the Tehran court and sent to the economic court concerned foreign currency interventions,” Tasnim quoted Alqasi-Mehr as saying.
That suggested Seif was to be tried for his expenditure of state funds to try to support the rial by pumping US dollars into the market, something the regime has done off and on for decades.
Seif was fired months after then US President Donald Trump in May 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed economic sanctions.
Seif led the Central Bank when it set an artificial rate of 42,000 rials to the US dollar in April 2018. While that rate still is used for importing some essential goods, the open market rate has long since fallen below 200,000 rials to the dollar.
Seif was replaced by Abdolnasser Hemmati, the current Central Bank chief.
Although he was banned from leaving the country while under investigation for “corruption,” Seif was immediately appointed banking adviser to President Rohani, an indication Rohani saw the investigation as political rather than criminal.
Several of Seif’s deputies were arrested after his sacking. One was then-deputy for foreign exchange affairs, Ahmad Araqchi, nephew to Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.