Four Sentenced to Death Over Iran Bank Fraud
100,000 Iranian rial, now worth less than $4 on the black market. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
It seems like everyone hates bankers these days, but the punishments meted out in a massive banking scandal in Iran would seem extreme, even to the most radical Wall Street Occupier.
Four people have been sentenced to death for their roles in Iran’s biggest-ever bank fraud scandal and ten others sentenced to decades in prison for a fraud scheme involving loans worth more than $2 billion.
The scandal even threatened to engulf Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose economy minister Shamseddin Hosseini narrowly survived an impeachment vote in November.
Muhammad Sahimi is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California; he’s also a journalist who writes frequently on Iran for the website Tehran Bureau.
The World is an independent newsroom. We’re not funded by billionaires; instead, we rely on readers and listeners like you. As a listener, you’re a crucial part of our team and our global community. Your support is vital to running our nonprofit newsroom, and we can’t do this work without you. Will you support The World with a gift today? Donations made between now and Dec. 31 will be matched 1:1. Thanks for investing in our work!