Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has written on his Facebook page that his ministry has been dealing with financials frauds totaling more than four trillion rials.
Zanganeh writes that in his meeting with Iranian president Hassan Rohani, the minister informed the president: “Although the issue of Babak Zanjani is exorbitant and we are serious in pursuing it, there are unfortunately other matter that are all above four trillion rials.”
Babak Zanjani, an Iranian tycoon and Basij member, was arrested in November in relation to a debt to the ministry of $8.2 billion dollars.
Zanganeh writes: “In many of these agreements, neither the amount nor the timeline has been clarified, and there are no guarantees about the quality expected from the contractors.”
The Iranian oil minister says Babak Zanjani currently owes each Iranian 1.1 million rials. Iran’s justice minister has stated that all of Zanjani’s possessions will not be enough to cover his debts, which according to the minister are equal to the entire country’s annual development budget.
