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Iranian parliament establishes special committee for Babak Zanjani`s oil debts

Business Materials 13 September 2013 19:21 (UTC +04:00)
Iranian parliament has established special committee on investigating Babak Zanjani`s debts to Iranian Oil ministry, the member of Iran's parliament Energy Committee Mousa Ahmadi said, Tasnim news agency reported.
Iranian parliament establishes special committee for Babak Zanjani`s oil debts

Azerbaijan, Baku, September 12 /Trend N. Umid/

Iranian parliament has established special committee on investigating Babak Zanjani`s debts to Iranian Oil ministry, the member of Iran's parliament Energy Committee Mousa Ahmadi said, Tasnim news agency reported.

He went on to note that, Iranian parliament had been following the issue behind closed doors.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Tuesday that he'll follow the oil revenues case to return all income to the government.

According to Zanganeh, over $2 billion of Iran's oil revenue is in possession of Babak Zanjani.

"Zanjani claims the Americans blocked his bank account so he is not able to transfer the money to the Iranian government," he explained.

Addressing the Zanganeh`s statement, member of Iran's parliament Energy Committee Mousa Ahmadi said, "We can not say who is right," adding that, After the committee finished its work, and the investigation's final result announced then we can comment on the issue."

Babak Zanjani, a well-known Iranian businessman dismissed Zanganeh`s claims during a video published on Youtube.

He said that, the money is in bank account of a Hong Kong-based company which is a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, adding that, "transferring the money to Iran is not my concern".

Zanjani stated that, his role in the issue was just helping the company to open account in the bank where he was working.

In an interview with the ISNA News Agency in August, Zanjani said that has helped transfer 17.5 billion euros of Iranian banks' capital from outside the country to domestic bank accounts with a 0.007 percent interest.

He further rejected rumors about him selling Iranian oil at a cheap price. He said that the Hong Kong-based company is in charge of selling Iran's oil, but since no bank was ready to transfer money for the firm, the said company asked him to help and he managed to transfer the money via the Malaysia-based bank (which he was a member of its board of directors).

Zanjani also said he has helped the Hong Kong-based company with selling eight oil containers as well as some gas condensates containers. He claimed that he has helped Iran sell a total number of 12 oil and gas condensates containers and secured the money transfer.

According to Zanjani, the National Iranian Oil Company in total exported 1.9 million euros worth of oil products via his companies.

He said that after being blacklisted by the US and the EU, the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) gave a 15-day deadline to the bank in order to transfer his financial resources worth over 13.5 billion euros to somewhere else.

Zanjani said that he is accused of violating sanctions against Iran in 272 cases.

He said that the First Islamic Bank has saved 17.5 billion euros of Iran's oil revenues by transferring the mentioned amount to domestic accounts through over 9000 transactions.

Zanjani was blacklisted by the United States on April 11 four months after the European Union blacklisted him.

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