Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 5 /Trend T.Konyayeva, T.Jafarov/
The Money and Credit Council (MCC) has cancelled the charter of Iranian private Arya Bank due to the last embezzlement case, Mehr News Agency reported.
This decision by the MMC, which is the highest banking policy-making body of the Central Bank, came after the bank's founder Amir Mansour Khosravi was considered one of the major suspects in the case.
Following Khosravi's appeal to establish the bank in March, the MMC approved the charter authorizing the operation of this financial institution. However, the bank did not operate because of absence of relevant license.
On Tuesday, Iran's Prosecutor General Hojjatoleslam Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said Iran has arrested 35 suspects over a $2.8 billion bank corruption case which was broken out two weeks earlier and was described as Iran's biggest case of embezzlement ever.
The embezzlement case started in 2007 by Amir Mansour Arya Investment Company, headed by Khosravi, and progressed in 2010 after some Iranian major banks, including Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, issued loans for the company.
The Javan Daily reported that Khosravi owns 38 factories, most of which are steel factories. He had registered a company with 200 billion rials ($20 million) five years ago and had bought 230 acres of land on Kish Island and hundreds acres of land near Kashanak at the price of 16 rials (0.16 cent) per meter.
Ejei confirmed that the company's assets worth $4.2 billion were seized and bank accounts were blocked.
Iranian officials say that the case involved the use of fraudulent documents to obtain credit for this investment company, one of the country's top financial institutions. The company used them to purchase assets such as state-owned companies.
During the last two weeks, a number of Iran's top financial officials, including the heads of Bank Saderat, Melli and Tourism were retired.
On Sept. 30, Iran's parliament started discussing an issue of taking a decision to impeach Minister of Economy and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini, member of the parliament Mousarza Sarvati said.
The Economy Ministry along with Bank Saderat, Bank Melli, Tat Bank and the Central Bank of were involved in the financial scandal, he added.