Marjan Al-Agha and the Largest Embezzlement in History

Marjan Al Agha and the Largest Embezzlement in History

Marjan Al Agha and the largest embezzlement in Iran’s history, according to Iran Gate, Marjan Al Agha, the main defendant in the case of the largest embezzlement in Iran’s history, carries one of the most complex cases of economic corruption. Al Agha has been involved in major petrochemical embezzlement cases and financial corruption in the oil and gas sectors, with direct coordination with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamid Baghaei, amounting to over $7 billion in embezzlement.

The extensive economic corruption case of Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al Agha is a clear example of the exploitation by sanction profiteers due to the destructive foreign policy adopted by the Islamic Republic. This case not only reveals the infiltration of corruption among the regime’s officials but also exposes the corrupt opposition to the public and public opinion.

In 2017, as investigations into the economic corruption of Ahmadinejad’s government intensified, she left the country for Turkey. Shortly after, she left Turkey and relocated to Canada. It is said that Marjan Agha currently resides in Canada and the USA and has separated from her second husband, Mehdi Khalaji.

Iran Gate has examined the economic corruption case of Marjan Al Agha in this report. Moreover, the editorial team of Iran Gate is preparing a report on Marjan Al Agha’s political corruption and unhealthy relations. The following will delve into the economic corruption case and the largest embezzlement in Iran’s history.

Everything started with Sepanir

Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al Agha entered the economic field in the mid-2000s with the imposition of extensive oil and banking sanctions against Iran. She established companies in the field of exporting oil and gas products in direct coordination with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then President of Iran, and Hamid Baghaei, Ahmadinejad’s executive vice president. It should be noted that Baghaei also served as the head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization from 2009 to 2011, which had direct connections with Marjan Al Agha.

Al Agha leveraged this direct connection with the heads of the ninth and tenth governments to secure large projects from Sepanir, a subsidiary of the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters. Through this, she gained access to a vast amount of the country’s oil and gas production. By exploiting the lack of transparency resulting from banking and oil sanctions in the transactions from oil and gas exports, she transferred large sums to her personal accounts, primarily in Chinese banks.

On the other hand, she obtained substantial foreign currency resources through Sepanir to import essential goods into the country. However, according to the prosecutor of the 700-page Al Agha and Hamzeh Lou case, she did not import any goods in exchange for receiving these foreign currency resources.

Marjan Al Agha and Reza Hamzeh Lou’s Financial Affair

Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al Agha’s name has been mentioned in numerous economic corruption cases, but the most significant one relates to a major embezzlement in the Petrochemical Commercial Company. Her name repeatedly appears in this case as the CEO of Deniz and Hetra Trading companies. Although 14 individuals have been accused in the petrochemical trading company’s corruption case, Marjan Al Agha is the most significant and is recognized as the second main defendant in the case.

In March 2019, Al Agha was accused of participating in disrupting the economic system equivalent to 318 billion and 637 million tomans. Additionally, other charges against her in the same case include acquiring illicit property worth 7 million and 65 thousand euros and 8 million and 710 thousand dollars.

Marjan Al Agha, in collaboration with Reza Hamzeh Lou, the former CEO of the Petrochemical Investment Company and the main defendant in this case, engaged in large and extensive embezzlements through currency transfers for petrochemical product exports.

Hamzeh Lou was appointed as the CEO of the Petrochemical Commercial Company in 2009, but shortly thereafter, he was appointed as a board member of the Semga Cultural Heritage and Tourism Investment Company.

This collaboration, formed under the shadow of sanctions and the resulting lack of transparency, has generally expanded as a profitable business from the sanctions against the Iranian people. The prosecutor of the case also emphasized in 2019 that the acquisition of illicit property in this case was carried out through unsecured currency transfers and heavy fund transfers between various accounts. Most of these financial transactions were conducted through Chinese banks in Shanghai, China, complicating the matter further.

This is why it is said that this case bears a strong resemblance to the Babak Zanjani case, but the difference is that Babak Zanjani was caught inside the country, while Al Agha left Iran permanently as soon as she sensed danger.

According to information released from the case and the prosecutor’s statements, Reza Hamzeh Lou and Marjan Al Agha transferred large sums to a company account named Deniz, belonging to Marjan Al Agha, in Turkey. This amount, estimated at around 660 million euros, was the money from the export of the country’s petrochemical products, which could not be transferred directly to the country due to sanctions.

Meanwhile, it is said that Al Agha and Hamzeh Lou only transferred 350 million euros of this money into the country and delivered it as foreign currency from the export of petrochemical products to the Petrochemical Commercial Company. Therefore, these two partners and accomplices in economic corruption transferred over 300 million euros to their other accounts in Chinese banks in just one instance.

In the second report of the series examining Marjan Sheikh Al-Islami Al Agha’s corruption case, her destructive activities abroad are explored.