Iran billionaire executed over $2.6-B fraud

EH AN A A billionaire businessman at the heart of a . - billion state bank scam, the largest fraud case since the country’s Islamic evolution, was e - ecuted yesterday, state television reported.

Authorities put Mahafarid Amir Khosravi, also known as Amir Mansour Aria, to death at Evin prison, just north of the capital, ehran, the station reported. he report said the e ecution came after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

he fraud involved using forged documents to get credit at one of Iran’s top financial institutions, Bank Saderat, to purchase assets including state-owned companies like major steel producer Khu estan Steel Co.

Khosravi’s business empire included more than companies from mineral water production to a football club and meat imports from Bra il. According to Iranian media reports, the bank fraud began in .

A total of defendants were convicted in the case. our received death sentences, two got life sentences and the rest received sentences of up to years in prison.

he trials raised uestions about corruption at senior levels in Iran’s tightly controlled economy during the administration of former resident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mahmoud e a Khavari, a former head of Bank Melli, another major Iranian bank, escaped to Canada in after he resigned over the case. He faces charges over the case in Iran and remains on the Islamic epublic’s wanted list. Khavari previously admitted that his bank partially was involved in the fraud, but has maintained his innocence.