Iran to Execute 4 Bankers on Fraud Charges

Iran's judiciary system recently worked through the biggest banking fraud case in the nation's history.

According to The New York Times, the outcome of the case was made official on Monday. Results were dramatic to say the least.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei told reporters that four people had been officially sentenced to death on charges of corruption and “disrupting the country's economic system.”

The guilty party was responsible for mishandling $2.6 billion of funds – using forged documents in order to receive credit from banks, permitting them to purchase state-owned companies.

From PressTV:

According to the indictment, the owners of Aria Investment Development Company, which is at the center of the controversy, had bribed bank managers to get loans and letters of credit. The company has more than 35 offshoots which are active in diverse business activities.

...

“The four are Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi…[the prime suspect], Behdad Behzadi, his legal advisor, Iraj Shoja, his financial solicitor and Saeed Kiani Rezazadeh, head of the Ahvaz branch of Saderat Bank,” he [Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei] said.

Additionally, the president of the Bank Melli branch in Kish was condemned to life in prison. The former deputy minister Khodamorad Ahmadi has been ordered to spend a decade in prison as well, according to Iran's attorney general, Mohseni-Ejei.

Several others involved in this infamous scandal have also been slapped with heavy fines and many have also been prohibited from holding public office.

Economist Nouriel Roubini added his two cents on the subject, reporting to Bloomberg:

“Bankers are greedy; they’ve been greedy for the last hundreds of years...t’s not a question if they are more immoral today then they were a thousand years ago, you have to make sure they behave in ways in which you minimize those risks.”

This message surely hits a little too close to home for central bankers across the globe who have been engaged with fraud and corruption in the past or present.

Constituents and political leaders spend a big chunk of time debating over how to deal with our crumbling economy. Ending system abuse from insiders and the Fed alike would undoubtedly have a positive ripple effect, but how is that goal going to be achieved? Thus far, not a single chief central banker has been arrested in light of the financial crisis.

This is completely asinine.

They keep making more money, while we struggle to thrive in the middle class. The brutal truth is that banks prosper when people are on welfare. They're invested in keeping you down and could care less about your American Dream.

Perhaps Iran is on to something by enforcing real consequences when insiders mess with the country's entire economic system. The death sentence decision is obviously harsh (Iran's justice system is pretty harsh in general). Alas, what's decided cannot be undone. They said they are trying to set an example.

Elite criminals shouldn't be treated differently than any other criminal; they should be prosecuted, not protected.