By Staff Writer
With the support of the police force, revolutionary guards, and the judiciary, “Qardhul Hasan” (i.e., interest free) loans and the credit institutes behind them have now transferred into financial oligarchies.
In one of the reports of a credit institute named “Samen-ol-Hojaj”, the name of two TV presenters, a former minister, and a retired police officer, can be found amongst the list of corrupt figures. Even though only their initials have been disclosed in the local news, their full names can be easily found across many social platforms.
Amongst those names are “H.S” for commander-in-chief “Hamid Sadarossadat” (the former head of Iran’s Law Enforcement Force, commonly known as NAJA; who retired in 2016), “M.M” and “E.A” which stand for “Mehran Modiri” and “Ehsan Alikhani” respectively (both of whom are media presenters), and “M.T” for “Manouchehr Mottaki” (former foreign minister of Ahmadi Nejad’s government).
Mottaki has reportedly received a $124-billion-Toman loan from Samen-ol-Hajaj. Sadarossadat on the other hand, has reportedly received even an even bigger amount, as he had involved his family members too; for instance, $100 billion Toman is under his son’s name as an “advance payment of 30 years income”, and $1.18 billion Toman for his wife. Another $50 billion Toman taken by him for the purchase of a property in Yazd, and 5 million Toman for his job as a consultant (whereas receiving income from two resources is an obvious violation of law). The latter, i.e., 5 million Toman, is the only amount not denied by Sadarossadat, which he claims was paid back as part of his repayment of 300 million Toman.
Mehran Modiri on the other hand, has reportedly received two amounts from the same institute in March and September 2013, under the title of “gifts”; first one being 180 million Toman and the second one, 400 million Toman.
Alikhani has also reportedly received 3 billion Toman under the title of “advertisement funds”.
Alikhani and Modiri have been the main subjects of this controversy and have sparked confusion as to how two TV presenters, one from a comedy background and the other from drama, have been granted such massive loans only for making people laugh or cry.
“Fear of Subversion”
Samen-ol-hojaj was founded in 2001 as a “cooperative credit institute” in Sabzevar, and later expanded into 489 branches across various cities in 2016. What used to be a credible institute is now accused of national disruptions of finance. The CEO of this institute, Abolfazl Mirali, who is considered the main cause of these disruptions, has now been imprisoned due to his inability to pay 4 trillion Toman for his bail.
Media platforms report that after the assessment of the Ministry of Intelligence back in 2013, Mirali had been disqualified, which raises the question that why his institute continued to run for another 5 years and why his infringements were excluded from his list of offences?
Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, a journalist and author of “Islamic Republic’s Political Economy”, tells the (Farsi version of) Deutsche Welle broadcaster, that these institutes have always been under the radar of the security forces and the judiciary, but the decision to deal with them was made when their infringements posed as a threat to the government’s survival: “from around 2010 and 2011, the government understood that the lack of a single monetary system in the country could lead to its subversion. People began their protests a couple of years ago, by lining up in front of these financial institutes, which the government had considered a threat only to some sectors, but with the continuity of these protests, it now knows that the entire sovereignty is in great danger”.
Amouee believes that: “the government has now reached the conclusion that if the rates of inflation and liquidity keep increasing, and if people become even more frustrated, then it would be best to let Central Bank take control”.
He emphasises that Central Bank is now stealing from the very same people to which it owes, to supposedly repay some of its debts and make up for the losses induced by the credit institutes who are now unable to mend the situation themselves. Because a big chunk of their funds has been transferred overseas: “the main portion of these funds is now in Canada, Turkey, and Georgia; only a small part has remained in the Iran in the form of currency exchange or building construction”.
According to Amouee, the regime wants to get rid of this mess but because it’s based on a non-transparent foundation, and also because the officials are not united with each other in their overall decision-making, there are no guarantees that there won’t be any more corrupt institutes in future.
