December 21, 2018
Former Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif is now banned by the Judiciary from holding public office for life, but he will not be imprisoned.
The ban means he will have to step down from his current post as one of President Rohani’s advisors. He was named an advisor in July after Rohani removed him from his Central Bank post as a result of the public ire over the collapse of the rial, which was widely blamed on Central Bank actions.
The Judiciary issued a statement December 6 saying that on November 19 the Supreme Audit Court of Iran upheld a February 2017 conviction of the former governor and his deputies. It did not detail what Seif was convicted of doing.
However, Seif found himself in hot water in early 2017 when one of the five Central Bank-approved credit institutions was unable to pay back the deposits of its customers. It was assumed that was what the Audit Court conviction was related to.
Meanwhile, the nose-diving of the national currency and chaos in Iran’s currency market put added pressure on the 66-year-old governor.
Seif represents a rare case of an Iranian official who has been sanctioned by the United States and censured at home as well.