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Tehran, Iran The former governor and several former officials of the Central Bank of Iran have been sentenced to jail for illegal actions in managing the country’s turbulent foreign exchange market under US sanctions.
Ministry of Justice spokesperson Zabihollah Khodaeian told national television on Saturday that before his dismissal in July 2018, Valiollah Seif, who led the troubled central bank for nearly five years, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Saif was appointed as a senior banking adviser to then President Hassan Rouhani immediately after leaving the central bank on corruption charges, and was convicted of “participating in disrupting the country’s financial system by illegally smuggling foreign currency.”
In May, the Prosecutor General of Tehran announced the indictment of Saif and his case will be sent to a special court specializing in investigating financial crimes. At that time, Saif was accused of “wasting” 30 billion U.S. dollars and 60 tons of gold reserves.
Seif was replaced by Abdolnasser Hemmati, a technical expert who was fired by Rouhani at the end of May after Rouhani announced that he would run for president with Ebrahim Raisi.
On Saturday, Ahmad Araghchi, the nephew of former top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi, was also sentenced to eight years in prison. He served as the central bank’s deputy foreign exchange affairs deputy until his sudden arrest in 2018.
A 30-year-old man named Salar Aghakhani was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was a key figure in the official illegal plan.
A spokesperson for the judiciary said that these three people are among the 10 people determined to participate in the plan, and some of their cases are under trial.
Illegal currency distribution scheme
These individuals were convicted of organizing and implementing a harmful plan, which was allegedly designed to prevent the further devaluation of the rial, Iran’s stumbling currency.
Arak became a deputy foreign currency trader in 2017, when concerns about US President Donald Trump gradually affected the Iranian market.
Trump unilaterally withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers in May 2018, marking the beginning of his “extreme pressure” sanctions campaign, which eventually targeted all sectors of the Iranian economy.
But since a few months ago, the Iranian currency has pulled out of a brief period of relative calm and quickly depreciated. After successively hitting multiple historical lows, the troubled rial hit its lowest point of approximately 320,000 per dollar in October 2020. It is now changing hands on the open market at a price of more than 270,000. At this time, its exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is below 40,000.
Mizan, the official news media of the judiciary, said on Saturday that Saif and Araghchi hired Agahani, who had been inexperienced-he had bribed Messam Kodai, an adviser to the President’s Office who was also jailed- Secretly distribute foreign currency in a turbulent market. Try to help it calm down.
According to reports, Aghakhani received 28 parcels containing U.S. dollars, euros, and dirham banknotes valued between 5 million and 8 million U.S. dollars, and distributed the money to elections with little supervision by the central bank. Set currency exchange. It is said that the governor fully understands the plan.
The judiciary stated that this not only did not help quell market tensions, but also resulted in the waste of hundreds of millions of dollars and their distribution among domestic and foreign speculators.
In addition, it is reported that after Agahani was arrested on an unannounced date, the central bank wrote to the judiciary requesting his release. Mizan reported that the unidentified person who wrote the letter was subsequently arrested and prosecuted.
The report said: “The verdict on the individual being sued is certain and must be executed.”
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