13 People Arrested on Charges of Theft from Bank Melli; ‘Most of the Stolen Assets’ Returned

On Friday, the 20th of Khordad, the FARS News Agency, citing the Tehran police commander, reported the arrest of thieves who stole from the safe deposit boxes at Bank Melli’s University Branch.

Hosein Rahimi, Tehran’s police commander, claimed on Friday in an interview with IRIB that “all thieves and their associates” were “identified and arrested in less than 48 hours.”

According to Mr. Rahimi, “most of the stolen assets from the safe deposit boxes have also been returned.”

According to the Tasnim News Agency, some of the thieves were arrested in Turkey.

Bank Melli Iran confirmed on Monday, the 16th of Khordad, in a statement that a theft from the safe deposit boxes at the bank’s University Branch in Tehran occurred during the three official holidays of last week.

One day later, the bank issued a new announcement on Tuesday stating that “168” safe deposit boxes at this branch were damaged by the thieves, and that the figure of 1,000 previously announced was incorrect.

The Tehran police commander said the thieves were arrested on Wednesday.

Hours later, the ISNA news agency reported, citing the Tehran prosecutor, that 13 people were arrested on charges of theft from the bank, “ten of them inside the country and three outside the country.”

According to Ali Salehi, the Tehran prosecutor, “large quantities of stolen assets were discovered at Imam Khomeini Airport in a car prepared by the suspects and some quantities were found in Tehran.”

However, Iranian news agencies are reporting that “most of the stolen assets” were returned after the thieves’ arrest, while it was previously stated that the bank cannot know the exact amount of stolen assets and documents, and only the owners of the assets are aware of this.

In this regard, the secretary of the Iranian Banks Association, referring to the safe deposit boxes not being insured, said: “A bank can only pay for damages to these boxes if the customer can prove how much goods or items they had in the box.”

Tasnim also wrote on Friday: “Some of these thieves, after the theft, went into hiding in one of the neighboring countries, but were arrested through the efforts of law enforcement and brought back to the country.”

The IRIB news agency published more details of this theft on Monday and wrote: “A number of thieves, during the recent holidays [the death anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini], entered the Bank Melli’s prestigious branch located on Revolution Street opposite Tehran University from an adjacent building, and broke into about 250 safe deposit boxes and stole the assets inside these boxes.”

Based on this report, the thieves were familiar with the bank’s environment and “stole the video recording device with them,” which is why “accurate statistics and information about this theft regarding how many thieves there were or how they managed to breach the bank’s system are currently not available.”

However, a point that caught users’ attention on social media was the short distance of this branch from the bank to a police station and also to the office of the presidency in Tehran, which should theoretically increase security for this location.

Source: Radio Farda