DUSHANBE, December 31, 2013, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan”s national bank has denied any cooperation with an Iranian businessman blacklisted by the United States, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.
Abdughaffor Qurbonov, a spokesman for the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), told RFE/RL on December 30 that a document presented by Iranian businessman Babak Morteza Zanjani to the Iranian parliament that purported to establish such a connection is fake.
Last week, a group of Iranian lawmakers also expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of the document, which allegedly showed that $2 billion had been transferred to Iran”s Oil Ministry from the Tajik National Bank.
In April, the U.S. Treasury Department accused Zanjani of operating a network of front companies to help Iran access oil revenues in violation of U.S. sanctions.
The department said the network moved billions of dollars, including tens of millions to a company controlled by Iran”s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
