Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 30 /Trend D. Khatinoglu/
Retired Chief of Iranian Melli (National) bank resigned after a $2.8 billion fraud scandal. He was supposed to have returned to the country from the United Kingdom on Friday, but did not.
Some of Iranian Melli bank's top officials went to Tehran's Emam Khomeini Airport at 2:40 p.m. to welcome him, but he did not come by a British Airways flight.
On Wednesday, the Former Managing Director of Iran's Bank Saderat Mohammad Jahromi said that Khavari flew to Canada following the arrest of several top-level executives.
Iran's Prosecutor General Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei confirmed that Khavari left the country, saying that he is in the UK and should be interested in returning to Iran of his own accord. The alternative will be to regard him as a major suspect and have him withstand all charges from the last corruption case.
During the last three days, the heads of Iran's three major banks - Saderat, Melli and Saman - retired after a $2.8 fraud scandal, which is described as Iran's biggest case of embezzlement ever.
Later Bank Melli's spokesman Hossein Dashdi said Mahmoudrza Khavari left Iran to deal with business affairs. He will return to Iran on Thursday.
Khavari sent a resignation letter to the Minister of Economy and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini on Tuesday to request a pardon from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian people for Bank Melli's involvement in the last corruption scandal.
Hosseini accepted the resignation and also dismissed a member of the Bank's Managing Board Farzad Ahmadi.
Last week, 22 suspects were arrested over Bank Saderat's $2.8 bln corruption case. The suspects were also accused of converting a letter of credit, issued by Bank Saderat's branch in the Khuzestan province, to cash in Bank Melli's office in Kish.