Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, an Iranian billionaire businessman at the heart of a $2.6 billion state banking scandal, was put to death at Tehran’s Evin prison today. (IRIB/AP, 24 May)
The fraud, for which Khosravi and three others defendants received death sentences, involved using forged documents to get credit at Iran’s Bank Saderat to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khuzestan Steel Co. The bank fraud reportedly began in 2007.
Khosravi's business empire included more than 35 companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Brazil, AP reported.
A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
A total of 39 defendants were convicted in the case. Four received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to 25 years in prison.
The trials raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy. Mahmoud Reza Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, Iran’s national bank, escaped to Canada in 2011
after he resigned over the case.
File
photo: Mahafarid Amir Khosravi speaks at
his trial in a court in Tehran, Iran. 18 February 2012. (Hamid
Foroutan/ISNA/AP)
