Iran former Minister of State arrested for financial fraud News
© WikiMedia (Ehsan Iran)
Iran former Minister of State arrested for financial fraud

Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said Sunday that authorities have arrested former Minister of Welfare and Social Security Parviz Kazemi for financial fraud.

Kazemi resigned in 2006 after serving nearly one year under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He then served on the board of directors of Capital Bank and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cultural Fund. IRNA reported that Kazemi has been taken to Tehran’s Evin prison.

Several officials during Ahmadinejad’s presidency have been accused of fraud related crimes. In 2016 an Iran court sentenced former prosecutor general Saeed Mortazavi to 135 lashes for misappropriation of funds in 2012 and 2013. Mortazavi was a prosecutor who was accused of human rights abuses during the Arab Spring protests, which resulted in the death of three protesters. Earlier that year, Iranian billionaire businessman Babak Zanjani was sentenced to death after being found guilty on charges of fraud involving an oil fund. Zanjani was arrested in 2013 after accusations arose that he withheld $2.7 billion in oil revenues by channeling it through his various companies.

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