Iran Government Foundation Confirms $200 Million Embezzlement

Iran’s Martyrs Foundation has confirmed several cases of embezzlement in the institution, saying only in one of insatnce the amount was about $200 million.

In a Tuesday interview with Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs chief Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi said, "We still do not know the exact amount of damages and embezzlements that have occurred,” adding that “only one company has embezzled about five trillion tomans," or 50 trillion rials.

He did not mention the name of the company but said, "It was so big that we asked the security and intelligence services to intervene and investigate.”

The foundation has an economic wing that oversees dozens of companies with colossal amounts of assets that include the Kosar Economic Complex with dozens of companies, the Martyrs Foundation Property Organization, the Shahed Investment Company, Day Bank and Iran Zamin Bank.

About 10 years ago, the Iranian parliament formed a taskforce to probe the embezzlements at the Martyrs Foundation, but its final report was buried due to "political pressure.” The head of the taskforce later said that more than 30 people were involved in embezzlement only in the case of Day Bank.

Ghazizadeh said, "A large group of Day Bank executives have been arrested. This was just one example, now the same issues exist in the Kowsar Economic Complex and Shahed Investment Company as well as in other companies.”

In his first move after his appointment by President Ebrahim Raisi, Ghazizadeh asked the government to transfer the authority of the country's free zones to the Martyrs Foundation.