Interpol Extradites Former CEO of Bank Sarmayeh to Iran

Iranian media outlets report that Alireza Heidarabadipour, the former chief executive officer of Bank Sarmayeh who had fled Iran, has been returned to Iran with the coordination of Interpol. This is the first time Europe has extradited an economic offender to Iran.

Iranian news agencies have reported that Alireza Heidarabadipour, the former CEO of Bank Sarmayeh and one of the defendants in a major economic corruption case, was arrested by Interpol in Spain and returned to Iran.

Heidarabadipour left Iran during the initial investigation into the corruption case involving Bank Sarmayeh managers. He was sentenced in absentia to 12 years imprisonment on two charges of disrupting the economic system through breach of trust and unlawful acquisition of money.

A representative of the Tehran prosecutor’s office announced last year (June 2019) that Alireza Heidarabadipour had been arrested in Spain, and now, after more than a year, he has been returned to Iran.

According to Iranian media, this is the first time an economic criminal has been extradited from Europe to the country.

Hadi Shirzad, head of Interpol for Iran’s law enforcement forces, said upon the defendant’s arrival at Tehran’s international airport: “The defendant will be handed over to judicial authorities to proceed with legal proceedings.”

“A Major Corruption Case”

Alireza Heidarabadipour was appointed as CEO of Bank Sarmayeh in February 2016 and was removed from the position about five months later in June 2016.

He was free on a five billion tomans bail but in late 2018, during the initial investigation into the corruption case at Bank Sarmayeh, he illegally left Iran.

The court hearing the case against Bank Sarmayeh managers, who were accused of economic corruption and embezzlement, has been ongoing for several years, and so far seven defendants in this case have been sentenced to a total of 67 years in prison.

Ali Bakhshayesh and Mohammad Reza Toosli, former CEOs of Bank Sarmayeh, and Parviz Kazemi, former head of the board of directors, have been sentenced to prison.

Hosein Hedayati, whom Iranian sports media have nicknamed “Bank Walker,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison in this case on charges of “money laundering, unlawful acquisition of money, and breach of trust.”

Hadi Razavi was accused of paying bribes to Bank Sarmayeh managers in order to withdraw approximately 107 billion tomans from the bank without depositing collateral and unlawful acquisition of money.

Abbasali Kadkhodaei, spokesman of the Guardian Council, described the extradition of the fugitive CEO of Bank Sarmayeh to Iran as “an important step toward creating an unsafe environment for economic criminals.”

According to ISNA, Kadkhodaei wrote on his personal Twitter account: “Security for economic activists, insecurity for economic criminals!”

Source: DW