Public backlash as Iran closes $3.7B corruption case, largest in its history
With only two former ministers receiving lenient sentences, the $3.7 billion embezzlement scheme has reignited national debates on systemic corruption amid an increasingly dire economic climate.
TEHRAN — Iran has officially closed the largest corruption case in its history, with two former ministers under late President Ebrahim Raisi sentenced to jail terms, according to the judiciary's official website, Mizan News.
The case implicated several ministries in connection with misusing public funds aimed at easing imports for the Debsh Tea company.
Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir announced that the court had sentenced former Agriculture Minister Javad Sadatinejad to two years in prison and former Industry Minister Reza Fatemi Amin to one year. Both were convicted of "complicity in disrupting the economic order," language the Iranian judiciary typically uses in reference to major corruption scandals. Their sentences were reduced from the initial five-year terms handed down last year.
The primary defendant in the case was business tycoon Akbar Rahimi Darabad, who has been convicted of "organized smuggling." He received a maximum discretionary prison sentence of 66 years, of which 25 will be served, with an order to return $2.38 billion to the state coffers.
