Recent embezzlement in Iran-Iran Today-11-08-2011

http://www.presstv.com/Program/209161.html

On October 27 2011, in Iran, a story that hit the national news headlines, all of sudden became breaking world news.

Everyone was talking about it and it became the topic of discussions almost everywhere. It was about a major abuse of Iran's banking system.

What officials called: "the most unprecedented financial corruption case in the history of the country." Both the public and the politicians were shocked and the story immediately drew different reactions.

But what had originally made the headlines turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg. As more dimensions were uncovered the story became more complicated -- to the point where no one could even agree what to call the scandal an "embezzlement" or a "fraud".

Three thousand billion tomans, the equivalent of 2.6 billion dollars, is the amount of money that an individual named Mah Afarid Amir Khosravi had been able to withdraw from the banking system and deposit in his personal account. Amir Khosravi had opened several companies and used the loopholes in the law pertaining to domestic Letters of Credit or LCs.

Officials later announced that about half of the accounts had been settled and that the actual amount of the fraud was 1.7 billion dollars. But, whatever the actual number, Amir Khosravi had been able to collect enough money to set up a new bank called "Aria".

Such cases of large scale embezzlement are not unheard of in the global arena. In other countries such as the United States, the Philippines, Indonesia, France, and the UK similar cases have been recorded involving even much larger amounts.

Iran's case, however, is considered special since the embezzlement took place through LC transactions.

Many people have been arrested in connection with the case, and there have been many reactions toward the scandal. Almost every government official has vowed to follow up the case and confront those who were involved.

In this edition of the show we will be scrutinizing the case, and presenting the viewpoints of officials, experts and the public in order to find the loopholes; while experts will be discussing ways to prevent similar cases from happening in the future.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• breaking world news
• major abuse
• Iran's banking system
• most unprecedented
• financial corruption
• Recent embezzlement in Iran
• Iran Today
• national
• news headlines
• officials
• politicians
• bankers fraud
• uncovered
• embezzlement
• fraud
• Mah Afarid Amir Khosravi
• loopholes
• Credit
• Aria bank
• United States
• Philippines
• Indonesia
• France
• UK
• scandal
• government
• Press TV