People’s Money Held Hostage by Trustees
Trust companies are taking advantage of the chaos caused by war and sanctions to fish for their own gains. These trustees, who in recent months have not returned billions of dollars from oil revenues and have managed to obtain unsupported guarantees from banks through collusion, now want to sell a number of sanctioned oil tankers in the market at a third of the price. Meanwhile, the oil money is sitting in their accounts in countries like Switzerland, the UK, and some East Asian countries. The ringleader of this mafia group is someone who should be a legislator, Gholamreza Tajgardoun, a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, but he is a supporter of law evaders. Despite two complaints from the Ministry of Intelligence and receiving a judicial verdict, Tajgardoun, with the influence of Mohsen Mina, has managed to enter the Assembly again despite accusations such as bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, collusion in government transactions, and exerting influence with official authorities, even after his credentials were rejected in the previous term. One of his main circle’s members is Hassan Tofighi, who pushes forward behind-the-scenes contracts. Omid Tofighi, who has been reappointed as the CEO of Polymer Gachsaran through influence, is one of the Tofighi brothers who support Tajgardoun as his purse and sponsor. This mafia network, through Ahmad Dehghan and by exploiting the facilities of Sam Energy Development Company as a representative of the Development Fund and with Tajgardoun’s support, has acted to issue unsupported guarantees to benefit the trustees for oil purchases, pocketing tens of millions of dollars through this corrupt method. Meanwhile, Mohammad Bahmaei, another member of the same circle, has been arrested several times. This mafia group plays a significant role in purchasing second-hand oil equipment and selling it as new. According to information received by the Iran Gate News Agency and considering the tweets of Saeed Aghanj, editor-in-chief of Iran Gate and investigative journalist, some relatives of this group in Canada and Denmark play a widespread role in money laundering for them. Additionally, Tofighi and Tajgardoun own a company in the UAE, which is managed by cover managers. They are one of the main rings of networked corruption in the country, hoping that the war would allow them not to return the money.
