Shahram Jazayeri-Arab

Shahram Jazayeri-Arab is an Iranian entrepreneur and businessman involved in a high-profile corruption case with several officials of the Islamic republic. He was also involved in fabrication of official documents. He had close ties with several high ranking reformist clerics.

Jazayeri-Arab was taken into custody in 2001, at the age of 24, for a long-list of criminal activities involving bribery, illegal exports, forgery and massive embezzlement of state money and assets. At this time, as a student in Theran, his personal wealth was near $989,000,000. The cases of Jazayeri-Arab raised questions about the Iranian government's commitment to deal seriously with corruption. Jazayeri-Arab was convicted in 2002 in a major corruption case involving 50 defendants, many of them sons of prominent clerics. In September 2004, his 27-year prison sentence was partially overturned, and he was occasionally released from prison on leave.

Jazayeri-Arab paid huge amounts of money to the Iranian members of parliament. He confessed to paying about $15,600,000 to Hadi Khamenei, the Iran Supreme leader’s reformist brother, and about $5,800,000 to Mehdi Karroubi, former Majlis speaker without requesting anything in return. He was reportedly arrested after he sent a check worth $35,000,000 to the office of Supreme Leader of Iran.

In 21 February 2007, Iran's Special Judicial Complex for economic affairs declared that Shahram Jazayeri-Arab has escaped, while being transferred to a court-assigned financial expert committee. There was suspicion of governmental involvement in his scape as it was assumed unlikely to scape from such prisons without assistance. Hossein Shariatmadari of Kayhan newspaper wrote an article supporting the theory that those clerics were trying to cover-up the case. Following the escape controversy, the head of Judiciary, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, fired a number of those responsible in the case, including the head of Evin prison and a few judges, and ordered an opening of a case in the military court for the judges. On March 19, 2007 Iran's head of intelligence agency confirmed that Jazayeri-Arab was arrested in an unnamed location in the Arabian Peninsula. His hiding location is said to be a remote village in Oman and handed over to Iranian authorities.

In 2007, an Iranian newspaper reported that, unlike ordinary prisoners in Iran, Jazayeri-Arab had access to a laptop and two mobile phones and is living in luxury in prison and continued his business works overseas.

In February 2007, Jazayeri-Arab was sentenced to 61,861,200 US dollars and 14 years of prison. In year 2008 he was seen several times in Dubai.

Notes

• http://www.rajanews.com/News/?3460
• http://www.rajanews.com/News/?3714

See also

• Abbas Vaez-Tabasi
• Fraud
• Criminal law