Iranian banks were robbed of 28 trillion Iranian rials (2.6 billion dollars), Agence France-Presse informs, referring to the information published by the Iranian mass media on September 11. The fraudster had been stealing money during two years, using fake letters of credit.
Thus, he managed to get several large assets, including one of the major Iranian steel plants Khouzestan Steel. According to Iranian mass media, the fraudster had elaborated a quite complicated scam scenario himself to implement it with his accomplices then. He swindled at least eight Irish banks.
As Iranian authorities representatives say, such a fraud is unprecedented in the country. One of the Iranian politicians called the fraud a glaring example of extraordinary corruptness of banking officials and civil servants.
According to head of the judicial system of Iran Sadegh Larijani, all the fraudsters were arrested. He refused to provide further detail about it. It is unclear whether the banks managed to get their money back, totally or partially.
Transparency International placed Iran on the 146th place out of 178 in its rating of corruption in various countries. Just to compare: Russia is even lower – on the 154th place in this rating.