Disclosure of a Confidential Meeting of Oil Trustees
IranGate has obtained the content of a meeting attended by Mohsen Paknejad, the Minister of Oil, and several members of parliament, in which claims about violations by oil trustees and weak oversight in the National Iranian Oil Company were raised.
According to the account of this meeting, Paknejad named Behzad Shamsi, the financial director of the National Iranian Oil Company, as the primary suspect in the case of a debtor trustee and considered the weak financial and oversight structure as factors in the ongoing delivery of oil shipments and increased losses. This is a claim attributed to the Minister of Oil and does not imply confirmation of Shamsi’s legal status.
Additionally, in this meeting, the possibility of collusion between the former director of international affairs and the financial director of the company was discussed, and it was claimed that the financial statements of the National Iranian Oil Company faced an adverse opinion from the auditor for the first time.
This account, along with claims regarding multi-billion dollar debts and the involvement of supervisory and security bodies, intensifies questions about the responsibility of the senior managers of the National Iranian Oil Company and the accountability of the Minister of Oil. The claims of misconduct and collusion need judicial review and verification.