NCRI – Astonishing financial corruptions among leading figures within the clerical regime are being unveiled these days by rival factions.
The cycle of name-and-shame, with opposing factions alternately spilling the beans on each other, is spiraling out of control. The charges of massive financial fraud now out in the open first surfaced in a recent speech by Abbas Palizdar, a member of the Investigative Committee of the Majlis (Parliament).
He accused 44 of the most senior ruling clerics and officials of the regime not just of robbing it blind, but also of plotting the physical elimination of their rivals. He divulged information indicating that some of the plane crashes of recent years resulting in the deaths of several cabinet ministers and high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders were not accidents.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quickly caught on to the seriousness of this new round of infighting. Seeking to slow its impact on the regime's disintegration from within, he devoted a good portion of recent public speeches to calls for unity, while expressing implicit support for Palizdar.
Palizdar's revelations are all the more significant because he is a close ally of mullahs' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the IRGC. Traditionally, when the notorious IRGC gets involved in name-and-shame, it quickly turns into name-shame-purge-and-eliminate. This may very well be a prelude to the physical purge of rivals or even disobedient allies. The rival faction fired back, as Palizdar is reportedly detained on June 11, 2008, on a wide range of charges including "spreading rumor."
The names identified in the massive financial corruption scandal are: Ayatollah Muhammad Imami Kashani, a member of the watchdog Guardian Council and Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader; Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts and former head of the Judiciary; Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a senior cleric who is also a source of religious emulation; and (to no one's surprise) former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family.
Palizdar told his audience: "The reason why we cannot deal with the economic corruption is that the major leaders of the country are involved in it." He added: "Economically corrupt figures active in the country are currently under the protection of [Mahmoud Hashemi] Shahroudi, head of the Judiciary."
He said: "At the moment there are 123 cases under investigation for economic corruption but if we want the actual figure it is just unbelievable. We are witnessing catastrophes under the Islamic Republic."
Referring to a case involving Imami Kashani he said: "He sent a letter which said his son was physically disabled and he plans to open a center to help physically disabled people and his son could stay with him there and the center could look after some 100, 200 or 300 other physically disabled. After the center was launched he wrote back and asked for state funding for the center and suggested that the marble mine in Fars province be registered under his name to this end. His request was approved and the ownership of the mine was handed over to him. A short while later, he complained once more that the marble mine was not enough to fund the center and he asked for control of some other mines in Zanjan. He finally took over four mines just to run a center for physically disabled people. This man is an Islamic theologian and unfortunately he is also a Friday prayer leader."
In a case involving Yazdi, former head of Judiciary, Palizdar said: "They obtained the approval of Khamenei to open a female school for judicial studies in Qom. After obtaining the approval they immediately sought financial support for the project and in this case they asked for the transfer of ownership of Dena Tire Factory. To evaluate the price of the factory some official experts from the Justice Department who also worked for the Judiciary priced it at $126 million while its actual price was over $600 million dollars. In their evaluations the properties owned by the factory, which amounted to millions of dollars were not even taken into account. This was Dena Factory which went to Yazdi when he was the head of the Judiciary. But when it came to make the payment he asked for discount and he immediately got 50 percent off. He wrote again and asked for more discount and it went on five times and in the end he was asked to pay only 10 million, a drop from 126. But even so, they said they did not have 10 million to pay therefore they were proposed to pay 80 percent in long term installments and 20 percent, that is 2 million, in cash. They again said that they did not have any money to pay for the 2 million, therefore they were offered a loan of 23 million dollars by the Iranian National Industries Organization. They were then asked to see Ayatollah … to get his signature and take over the Factory. It was shortly after this that the factory was sold and transferred to those who carried out manipulations from behind the scene."
On Yazdi's plunder, Palizdar added: "Yazdi wrote again and said that his son was unemployed and asked for special arrangements to allow his son to make use of the forests in the north to export the wood. This was while his son was a director general in the Judiciary. Unfortunately the forests in the north have been looted…"
Economic corruption of Rafsanjani and his family
Palizdar described the economic corruption of former mullahs’ president Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family as unspeakable. "One of the examples of economic corruption of this family is their refusal to pay tax for imports which amounted to billions of dollars. Taking control of a third of the Kish Island and the forestry in the north are also part of the Rafsanjanis’ economic corruption. The cost of watermelon used at the horse stable belonged to Rafsanjani's daughter is $100 daily. The profit made by the oil company owned by this family and Rafsanjani's sister who lives in Canada is unimaginable."
The rival faction hits back
Mohsen Sazegara, one of the founders of the IRGC, but currently belonging to the rival faction, said in a radio interview: "Palizdar belongs to Ahmadinejad's faction. One has to ask 'what about the misconducts by his faction?' They have snatched money from the Oil Ministry and dozens of state bodies. The most important of all is the IRGC with more than 800 companies and its involvement in more than 1,500 major projects in the country."
He added: "Many of the management posts in the country are given to people related to Ahmadinejad and high level or mid level commanders of the IRGC. What about Khamenei's family? What about major organizations such as Foundation for the Deprived, Martyrs Foundation and Headquarters to Implement the 8-point Command of Imam which are all exempted from any inspection. There have been hundreds or perhaps thousands of cases of corruption in these centers."
Conclusion
The new phase of purge-and-eliminate, which began just before the March Parliamentary elections, can be expected to worsen as the movement for democracy mounts up pressure on the ruling elite. Protesters are making inroads on college campuses, and strikes and protests have become commonplace in many factories and workshops in Iran.
The internal disintegration of the ruling regime, the rise of anti-government protests, the regime’s setbacks in Iraq and international sanctions targeting its nuclear agenda, are all dynamically intertwined. But the core component of a continuing downward spiral of the regime, vital to the realization of democratic change in Iran, is the role of the democratic opposition movement.
