Another part of government corruption in Iran exposed; 3 billion euros of state currency has been allocated to "two famous families"
While economic corruption cases in Iran are still open, this time Shargh newspaper, in a report titled "3 billion euros in the hands of two famous families," examined the updated list of recipients of state currency, which was recently published by the Central Bank of Iran.
In a report published on Tuesday, May 7, Sharq newspaper announced that over the past year, more than 10,000 individuals and legal entities have received a total of over 25 billion euros in foreign currency, equivalent to 4,200 tomans per dollar, from the Central Bank.
The newspaper reported that of this amount, more than €6.8 billion went to the top 25 companies on the list of 10,000, and that €3 billion of the companies receiving the money went to companies owned by two prominent families. However, Sharq did not specify who these prominent families were.
Sharq also wrote about the list of individuals and legal entities that had received foreign and government currency.
According to the report, "In the past year, 798 people have received a total of more than 232 million euros in foreign exchange; people who are sometimes managers or board members of companies that are also listed as legal entities on the list of recipients of foreign exchange or government funds."
The report looked at the list of individuals receiving foreign exchange and wrote that at the top of this list is a person named "Alireza Nourbakhsh", who has received more than 14 million and 538 thousand euros in foreign exchange.
Shargh, noting that Nourbakhsh's name had previously been mentioned during the publication of the list of recipients of foreign exchange for importing paper, and that at that time, the media's efforts to find traces of Nourbakhsh among paper market activists had not led anywhere, reported that this person, in partnership with "Hadi Asadi Ghiyathvand," established a company called "Taqdir Qaghaz Tadbir" to import and export cellulose products and to procure, buy, and sell various raw materials needed by the papermaking, boxmaking, and related machinery industries. This company is also not well-known among paper industry activists.
"Hossein Beheshti" is the second name on the list of the largest recipients of foreign exchange, which Shargh has mentioned and introduced as a banana importer and apple exporter. According to the report, Beheshti received 8 million and 933 thousand euros for "banana imports".
But the third person this newspaper covered is "Mohsen Qaderi," who received more than six million and 927 thousand euros in foreign currency.
Shargh wrote in this regard that "This Mohsen Qaderi should not be confused with Mohsen Qaderi, the CEO of Shaparak Company. All we can say about this Qaderi is that he established a limited liability company called "Asia Gostar Qaderi" in January 2015 with a capital of one hundred thousand tomans, with the purpose of importing and exporting all permitted commercial goods, food, and foodstuffs, and it seems that he is active in the field of rice import."
However, the increase in corruption and the filing of financial corruption cases in Iran has grown significantly in recent months; cases in which current and former government officials are among the defendants, and some real figures are also known as "dealers".
This level of corruption comes at a time when the economic crisis has also sparked a wave of popular protests in Iran.
The United States has repeatedly pointed out the existence of corruption in the Islamic Republic's government.
In tweets on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, the US State Department wrote about the wealth of Iran's rulers and the corruption of the Islamic Republic's government apparatus, saying, "The Iranian government is full of corrupt hypocrites."
Source: Voice of America
