DUSHANBE, January 3, 2014, Asia-Plus — Iranian state-run media report the billionaire Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani was arrested last Monday.
On December 30, 2013, Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted judiciary spokesman Gholamhoseyn Mohseni-Ezhei as saying that Mr. Zanjani had been arrested and taken to Tehran”s Evin prison.
According to Iran’s Press TV, the arrest comes after 12 Iranian lawmakers accused Mr. Zanjani of corruption, calling for an inquiry into his financial activities in a letter to the heads of the three branches of the Iranian government.
In September 2013, Iran”s parliament reportedly began investigating his business dealings after he was accused of withholding 1.9 billion U.S. dollars of oil revenue meant to be channeled through his companies.
Mr. Zanjani, who claims he is worth 13.5 billion U.S. dollars, has denied the allegation.
BBC News reports that last week, the Central Bank of Iran said Mr. Zanjani had not transferred the outstanding amount.
After being accused of withholding money earlier this year, Mr. Zanjani said that he had already transferred 700 million U.S. dollars, but that the international sanctions were preventing him from handing over the remaining 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
We will recall that the United States and the European Union have both blacklisted Babak Zanjani for helping Iran”s government and several firms evade an oil embargo.
In early December, Mr. Zanjani was also forced to deny any involvement in a major corruption scandal in neighboring Turkey.
Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reported on December 30 that 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), reportedly 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.
RFE/RL reports 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.
