Khuzestan Governor Refuses to Explain Allegation of Receiving Tens of Thousands of Dollars in Bribes from Haft Tappeh CEO
Following the publication of reports from the closed trial of the CEO of Haft Tappeh regarding his "bribery of tens of thousands of dollars to the wife of the governor of Khuzestan", ISNA news agency reported that the governor of Khuzestan refused to provide an explanation on the matter and only said: "The moon does not stay behind the clouds."
On Saturday, June 25, in response to reporters' questions about the trial of the CEO of Haft Tappeh, Gholamreza Shariati simply said: "Wait a little until everything becomes clear, God willing."
According to ISNA, he also recited a hadith and said that falsehood disappears by not remembering it.
The trial of Omid Asadbeigi, CEO of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane, is being held in private, but some conservative media outlets, including the "Daneshjo News Agency", have published details of the trial.
After the second court hearing, which was held on May 20, these media outlets reported that Omid Asadbeigi paid the governor's wife $20,000 for one of the governor's and his family's trips, and also paid the governor's wife $200,000 through an intermediary.
A conservative media activist who attends these trials says that the prosecutor's representative said in the second court session: "Omid Asadbeigi believes that anyone can be bought with money, and he has proven this in his actions."
According to the same report, the prosecutor's representative also referred to some allegations made about Asadbeigi's financial relations "with the state prosecutor and his son," "Hojati, Minister of Agricultural Jihad," and "Jahangiri, First Vice President."
On the other hand, a number of media outlets and activists close to the government and reformists have also claimed that the involvement of the Khuzestan governor in this case has partisan motives.
Omid Asadbeigi is the first defendant in the case investigating "state currency violations." Along with 20 others, he is accused of "disrupting the country's currency and monetary system through major currency smuggling and unauthorized transactions in state currencies."
According to a short report that Islamic Republic Television broadcast from the statements of Massoud Shahmohammadi, the prosecutor's representative in this case, the amount of government currency received and the extent of violations in them have reached a record high, reaching more than $1.4 billion.
The Haft-Tapeh Nishgar Company was transferred to the private sector in 2015. Workers of this industrial complex, declaring that numerous violations occurred during this privatization and that their union problems intensified after that, held several rounds of protest rallies, which peaked in November and December 2018.
A number of workers from the company and activists who covered the protests were arrested, and two of them, Esmaeil Bakhshi and Sepideh Qolyan, were imprisoned again after initially being released and recounting the torture they had been subjected to.
In addition to Omid Asadbeigi, several other managers or associates of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company have also been accused of billions of dollars in foreign exchange violations, including Mehrdad Rostami Chegini, the company's chairman of the board of directors, who is the second-ranking defendant in this case.
Source: Radio Farda
