Eleven members of the Iranian Parliament have written a letter to the presiding board of Parliament, calling for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be prosecuted for his alleged involvement in the “great financial fraud in Iranian banks.”
The Mehr News Agency reports that the letter also accuses presidential chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, Iranian Central Bank head Mahmoud Bahmani, the central bank’s deputy head, Hamid PourMohammadi, and Finance Minister Shamseddin Hosseiny.
Earlier, Ahmadinejad had dismissed all accusations directed at his government regarding the $3-billion financial fraud case, insisting that his government is “the cleanest government in the country’s history.”
Over the past four years, the AmirMansour Arya Company sold $3-billion worth of fraudulent letters of credit to eight Iranian banks.
The Bank of Saderat and the Iran Melli Bank are said to have sustained the heaviest losses. The Saderat CEO has been dismissed, and the head of the Melli Bank resigned last week, acknowledging that some of his branch managers had “surpassed the limits of their authority.” However, the next day he left the country for Canada, where he holds residency, and has not returned, despite announcements that he was scheduled to return to Iran last Thursday.
The judiciary has urged the senior Iranian banker to return to Iran to refute the accusations against him.
