Continued Reactions to Audio File on Widespread Corruption in IRGC

Khamenei’s representative at the Kayhan Institute claims that the expose about corruption in the IRGC was related to one of its subsidiary companies. In a leaked audio file, among other things, Qasem Soleimani’s efforts to appeal to Khamenei to help those accused have been mentioned.

The aftershocks of the disclosure of an approximately 50-minute audio file of conversations between the commander-in-chief and the economic deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the time, which was published on Radio Farda on February 10, continue.

In conversations from 2018 contained in this audio file between Mohammad Ali Jafari and Sadegh Zolghadr, widespread corruption in the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, Quds Force, and Tehran Municipality is mentioned, involving many of Khamenei’s appointees, including Qasem Soleimani and the current parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

The audio file references the prominent role of Tehran’s former mayor, former and current commanders of the Quds Force, Jamaladin Abromand, the former IRGC coordinating deputy, and Hossein Taeb, the IRGC’s intelligence chief, in widespread corruption amounting to thousands of billions of tomans.

Khamenei’s Representative’s Claim at Kayhan

Hossein Shariatmadari, the Supreme Leader’s representative at the Kayhan Institute, has claimed in a note that the disclosed conversation demonstrates the seriousness of IRGC commanders in combating corruption and the judicial branch’s efforts to prosecute and punish offenders.

Contrary to this claim, many of those accused whose names were mentioned in the audio file have not been prosecuted at all, and some who were tried and convicted are currently free without serving their sentences.

In part of the IRGC commanders’ conversation, they refer to the Yas Holding, an important arm of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which at that time was the subject of much discussion about corruption amounting to thousands of billions of tomans, with Jamaladin Abromand, the then IRGC coordinating deputy, being one of its main guests.

Jafari tells Zolghadr in part of his conversation that Qasem Soleimani was very dissatisfied with dealing with Yas Holding violators and also appealed to Khamenei on this matter.

The conversation also states that Khamenei ordered 90 percent of the Cooperative Foundation’s revenue to be placed under the Quds Force’s control and 10 percent under the IRGC’s.

Soleimani in the Role of Protector of the Corrupt and Violators

Hossein Shariatmadari says Soleimani spent this money to “save the men, women, and children of this land from the claws of savage takfiris,” and this action is in no way “undesirable and reprehensible.” He makes no reference to Soleimani’s mediation to exempt violators from punishment.

In response to such attempts to exonerate senior IRGC commanders from involvement in organized and widespread corruption, Masoud Kazemi, a journalist, wrote in a Twitter message: “So Mohammad Ali Jafari is one of the defendants in the Capital Bank corruption case that was never investigated.”

Ramadan Sharif, the IRGC’s spokesperson and public relations chief, is another person who has reacted to the disclosure of the audio file about IRGC commanders’ corruption.

Mehr News Agency reported on February 14 (quoting Sharif): “Over the past 5 years, the IRGC’s oversight bodies, following current procedures and continuous monitoring, have suspected a phenomenon of mismanagement and violation in one of the subsidiary companies of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, and after careful and professional review, the case was referred to judicial courts and the judiciary, with the IRGC’s cooperation, issued sentences for violators who are currently serving their sentences.”

One of the Main Defendants, Qalibaf’s Assistant

This claim is raised at a time when the IRGC’s economic deputy accused Qalibaf in his conversation with Jafari of asking him to “cooperate to resolve an eight trillion toman deficit in Jamaladin Abromand’s team at the IRGC Cooperative Foundation.”

After becoming parliamentary speaker, Qalibaf appointed Jamaladin Abromand as his assistant. Many other senior IRGC commanders whose names have been mentioned in connection with corruption cases, such as Hossein Taeb, are among Khamenei’s confidants and have never been investigated for their charges.

Fars News Agency, one of the media outlets close to the IRGC that confirmed the authenticity of the Jafari-Zolghadr conversation one day after its disclosure, on February 14 made an effort in an “analytical report” to introduce Qalibaf and senior IRGC commanders as individuals who played a fundamental role in pursuing corruption cases and prosecuting those accused, a claim that the audio file completely contradicts.

Source: DW