Four Sentenced to Death Over Iran Bank Fraud
100,000 Iranian rial, now worth less than $4 on the black market. (Photo: Wiki Commons)
It seems like everyone hates bankers these days, but the punishments meted out in a massive banking scandal in Iran would seem extreme, even to the most radical Wall Street Occupier.
Four people have been sentenced to death for their roles in Iran’s biggest-ever bank fraud scandal and ten others sentenced to decades in prison for a fraud scheme involving loans worth more than $2 billion.
The scandal even threatened to engulf Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose economy minister Shamseddin Hosseini narrowly survived an impeachment vote in November.
Muhammad Sahimi is a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California; he’s also a journalist who writes frequently on Iran for the website Tehran Bureau.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.