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Babak Zanjani, An Iranian billionaire tycoon has been sentenced to death for corruption, the country’s justice official has said.
Babak Zanjani, with a reported estimated net worth of $US14 billion ($18.9 billion), had previously been blacklisted by both the United States and the European Union for helping Iran sell oil in violation of international sanctions.
In 2013, the US Treasury Department accused Zanjani of being involved in a multibillion-dollar scheme to launder money in a sanctions-busting manoeuvre. Those allegations came before last year’s deal between Iran and world powers that ended most nuclear-related sanctions in exchange for constraints on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Babak Zanjani also faced domestic charges. Iranian authorities arrested the businessman in December 2013 and charged him with misappropriation of about $US2 billion from Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum. Zanjani was accused of skimming oil profits.
Authorities said the death sentence could be reversed if Zanjani repays the pilfered proceeds. Zanjani’s lawyer has protested that a bank has refused to accept Zanjani’s offer of payments, according to reports in Iran.
Babak Zanjani has 20 days to appeal the sentence, a judiciary spokesman said on Sunday.
Authorities here have prosecuted other instances of corruption, but death sentences in such cases are relatively rare.
The severity of the punishment suggests the case is viewed in part as a warning to other entrepreneurs as Iran’s economy opens up with the end of sanctions. Many investors here are anticipating a bonanza as international funds pour into the country.
Twenty years ago, in 1996, Fazel Khodadad, a prominent businessman, was hanged after being convicted in a $US400-million embezzlement scheme linked to a state-owned bank. That appeared to be the last death sentence issued in a corruption case.
The administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has assailed what it has termed widespread economic corruption and mismanagement under the government of his predecessor, Mr Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005 to 2013. The Zanjani case has been held up as a prime example of how shady entrepreneurs with ties to the government were able to enrich themselves during Mr Ahmadinejad’s eight-year rule.
Agencies/Canadajournal
