Iran executes ‘Sultan of Coins’ for wholesale trafficking in gold

TEHRAN: Iran executed a trader dubbed the ‘Sultan of Coins’ for his wholesale trafficking in gold to exploit a surge in demand from savers spooked by this year’s currency crisis.

Vahid Mazloomin and accomplice Mohammad Esmail Ghasemi had been convicted of ‘corruption on earth’ – Iran’s most serious capital offence – by “forming and running a network for disrupting the economy”, the judiciary’s news agency Mizan online reported.

Iran has suffered a sharp economic downturn this year, fuelled in part by US President Donald Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between major powers and Tehran and reimpose crippling unilateral sanctions.

Fearing for the economy, many Iranians rushed to secure their savings by buying foreign exchange and precious metals, causing the rial to lose around 70 per cent of its value against the dollar and the price of gold coins to quadruple.

Police said Mazloomin had “amassed around two tonnes of gold coins” by the time of his arrest on July 2. His network’s transactions were reportedly in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The octopus-like network disrupted the economy by buying, selling and smuggling foreign currency and gold coins,” Mizan said.

There have been widepread reports this year of dealers and middlemen manipulating the markets by hoarding dollars and coins in order to push up prices. — AFP