Charges Against Welfare Minister’s Son-in-Law Announced; ‘Return of 211 Billion Toman Bank Loan’

In the second session of the trial of several defendants in the Sarmaye Bank case, Mohammad Hadi Razavi, son-in-law of Mohammad Shariatmadari, Iran’s Minister of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare, was accused of borrowing 211 billion toman from several banks and failing to repay it.

The court of Mr. Razavi and 30 other defendants in the Sarmaye Bank case was held on Monday, Ordibehesht 30 in the Third Branch of the Special Court for “Investigating the Crimes of Economic Saboteurs and Corrupt Individuals” presided over by Asadollah Massoudi.

In this session, Mr. Qahraman, the prosecutor’s representative, called the Sarmaye Bank file “full of corruption.”

He said that according to the Central Bank report, Mr. Razavi received 107 billion toman from Sarmaye Bank and 104 billion toman from Day, Eghtesad-e Noin, Housing and Commerce banks.

The prosecutor’s representative had also stated in the first court session: “Hadi Razavi, through the channel of bribing Sarmaye Bank managers, withdrew approximately 107 billion toman from the banking network without providing collateral between 1391-1394 and spent it on luxury, foreign trips, luxury cars and property.”

In Monday’s court session, he also stated that Hadi Razavi deposited some of his money into accounts of companies established in the names of homeless individuals.

Mr. Qahraman added: “Golgoon Tejarat Jahan company, which belongs to an orphaned young man, obtained 30 billion toman in facilities in his name, and they were supposed to give him five million toman, but they didn’t even give him that five million toman.”

So far, the court has held several cases related to Sarmaye Bank, and Ali Bakhshayesh, Mohammad Reza Tousali, as well as Parviz Kazemi, the welfare minister of the Ahmadinejad government, have been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The main shareholder of Sarmaye Bank is the Teachers Welfare Fund, and the case of this bank was initiated following the discovery of “15 trillion toman” in corruption in this fund.

The Teachers Welfare Fund has over 800,000 members affiliated with the Ministry of Education and pays them annual interest from monthly deposits of teachers.

Meanwhile, Sarmaye Bank defendants have been accused of “14 trillion toman in embezzlement of Teachers Welfare Fund assets.”

Besides Mohammad Hadi Razavi, in the court sessions of this bank, the names of Mohammad Imami, producer of the series “Shahrzad” and Ehsan Delaviaz have been mentioned as individuals who had close relations with Sarmaye Bank managers and failed to pay their debts to the bank.

According to the prosecutor’s indictment, Mohammad Razavi was also accused of concluding a contract with the Livestock Affairs Joint Stock Company for the purchase of poultry and meat for 17 billion and 500 million toman and presenting a guarantee letter from Sarmaye Bank that “if the checks bounced, the guarantee letter would be executed.”

Based on this indictment, Mr. Razavi sells these meats in the market and does not pay the Livestock Organization and Sarmaye Bank.

The prosecutor’s representative, referring to Mr. Razavi’s travel to 50 countries and his purchase of several buildings in Iran, said that he “mortgaged property in the name of his secretary and purchased a BMW car for himself.”

He added: “Razavi uses teachers’ money and, in the name of car investment, purchases vehicles such as a Maserati, Suzuki, Toyota Fortuner, and an MV Agusta motorcycle worth ten Peugeot 50 million toman models. There are reports that he came to the street with formality.”

According to the prosecutor’s representative, Mr. Razavi also sold a building that he had purchased in 1392 for 23 billion toman as a barter to Sarmaye Bank for 125 billion toman.

He said that experts assigned to evaluate this building were, on the orders of Yaser Ziaye, deputy of Sarmaye Bank, introduced “outside the main list” of experts and had “overvalued” it in their evaluation.

Nevertheless, Mr. Razavi rejected these accusations and said that the value of this building was real.

In the court session, the prosecutor’s representative also stated that Mr. Razavi, in exchange for receiving 285 million toman, conducted advertising for Sarmaye Bank at the FARS news agency.

Mr. Razavi also confirmed this. However, FARS news agency announced that this media, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, did not have a contract with Mr. Hadi Razavi, and the aforementioned contract was concluded with a company called “Katibeye Noaye Fatemi” whose CEO was a different person from Mr. Razavi.

Source: Radio Farda