A key player in Iran’s biggest-ever banking scandal was executed here Saturday, according to state media reports.
The office of Tehran’s public prosecutor announced that Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi, one of four co-conspirators given the death sentence in 2012 for their roles in embezzling the equivalent of $2.6 billion, was hanged in Tehran’s Evin prison.
Among those accused in the case — in which a group of powerful businessmen conspired with bank managers to rob public coffers — were executives at seven of Iran’s largest banks. The managing director of the largest one, Melli Bank, is still at large, having fled the country soon after the details of the case were announced in September 2011.
Amir-Khosravi was convicted of forging letters of credit, proceeds from which were later used to set up a private bank.
Plans for his execution had not been made public, and his death caught many by surprise.