Andrew Fahie, premier of the British Virgin Islands, was arrested Thursday in Miami on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to import cocaine, allegedly brokered by Hezbollah operatives.
Middle East Eye, based in London, reported that according to a complaint launched in a Florida court Virgin Island officials had been connected to an undercover US Drug Enforcement Agency informant by operatives of Iran-backed Hezbollah, the Lebanese party allied to Iran.
The operative allegedly offered the informant the use of a storage port on the island of Tortola, the most populous of the Virgin Islands, to hold Colombian cocaine en route to Miami.
Fahie was arrested by the DEA along with Oleanvine Maynard, manager of the territory's ports authority. Fahie, Maynard, and Maynard’s son Kadeem had allegedly forged their plan with the informant, who had posed as a member of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and who had met "a group of self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives."
Fahie, who has since last year has been the subject of an enquiry into alleged corruption, was allegedly due to make $7.8 million from the scheme. Located in the Caribbean east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, the group of islands is a British Overseas Territory with its own elected government.
Tasnim news website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard said that the new "Kheybar Shekan" solid-fuel missile with a range of close to 1,500 kilometers was displayed for the second time this month.
The word Kheybar refers to an attack by early Muslims in 628 AD led by Prophet Muhammad on Jews living in Khaybar (Arabic pronunciation of Kheybar). The word Shekan means destoryer and Kheybar Shekan means "destroyer of Kheybar".
The ballistic missile Emad, with a range of 1,700 km was also paraded, as anti-Israeli banners installed by state organs covered major streets in Tehran and other cities.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami said on Friday that Israel was creating conditions for its own destruction with its "evil actions".
"Stop your vicious deeds. You know well that we are people of action and reaction. Our responses are painful. You create conditions for your own destruction. We will not leave you alone. Wait [for us]," Salami said during Quds Day in Tehran.
"You know better than us what will befall you if you take evil action."
The Revolutionary Guard Intelligence Organzation chief Hossein Taeb, a cleric, referring to "resistence forces" and Palestinians said that "Quds…God willing, will be freed soon" and Iran knows that Israel is in fear. Zionists, he said, have reached "the edge of the abys."
Messagaes in similar state-organized events are also directed at the supporters of the régime and feed the coverage in media controlled by the government.
Taeb also said that the "supporter of the occupyer of Quds, Ameirca is not in a good state. The arrogant and dominating power of America is declining," he said, and added that American leaders are lost amid numerous domestic and foreign challenges. They cannot free themselves from the humiliating situation they face in West Asia, and other foreign powers who might want to fill America’s shoes should learn the leasson, Taeb said.
The head of IRGC intelligence went on to say that "We will not také away our gaze from the enemy," and will watch their every move.
The commander of IRGC’s extraterritoral Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani also told the crowd at he Tehran Friday Prayer that the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini always supported the Palestinians and the Islamic Republic in its four-decade history tried to follow his teachings to "liberate Palestine."
He then praised the Lebanese Hezbollah, created in the early 1980s with planning and support by Iran’s nascent régime. Ghaani warned that "children of the Islamic Republic are present all over the world," and have organized "resistence fronts" everywhere.
Tehran calls all militant forces and groups that follow its policies and receive support the "resistence front."
Former lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi wrote in an April 26 tweet: "I said in an interview with Didban Iran website that further to Ghalibaf family's luxury layette shopping spree in Turkey, they have also bought two apartments in Istanbul in the name of Ghalibaf's son-in-law."
The former lawmaker continued: "Instead of offering an explanation or apology, Ghalibaf has filed a complaint against me. There needs to be an open court that would also investigate the cases of Ghalibaf's [8 trillion rial corruption] case about the Tehran Municipality,” and the case involving [former IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari's leaked tape about Ghalibaf's involvement in a major corruption case.
Imanabadi had said in the interview with Didban Iran: "The person who has bought two apartments for 20 million Turkish Liras in one of Turkey's best neighborhood as well as 20 suitcase-full of layettes, has undermined the regime's prestige and should be removed from positions of power at once."
Subsequently, an advisor to Ghalibaf told the media that the Speaker will definitely file a complaint against Imanabadi.
Didban Iran reporter Nazila Maroofian wrote in a tweet: "Ghalibaf's aides have threatened us [about the interview] and at the same time they have filed a complaint against Imanabadi."
The website was not accessible Wednesday morning.
Earlier, Ian International TV and the Independent in Persian had reported that Ghalibaf's family had paid 400 billion rials ($1.6 million) to buy two apartments in Turkey.
Mahmoud Razavi, an adviser to Ghalibaf has characterized the revelations about the apartments in Turkey as "a new dimension of a security and political project." He suggested that those who have the evidence about the purchase at their disposal should hand them over to Imanabadi so that he could defend himself in court.
Razavi had said earlier that the disclosures "were part of a security project carried out by a security organization." He added that the project aimed to eliminate Qalibaf as a rival.
Ghalibaf hass so far kept silent about his family's visit to Turkey. However, his aides and supporters including the hardliner daily Kayhan which is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, Parviz Sorouri, a deputy chief of the Tehran City Council and a few Iranian lawmakers have harshly attacked his detractors.
On the other hand, Vahid Ashtari, the whistle-blower who first revealed the story, wrote in a tweet: "One week after returning from Turkey, they still cannot offer any explanation. They are not brave enough to apologize or to deny the reports."
Some media outlets in Iran, however, have accused the Raisi administration of spreading the news about Ghalibaf's family's luxury shopping because of the administration's differences with the speaker. However, they have not given any details to back their accusations.
Khamenei and his office have so far been cautiously silent about the scandal. Iran International analyst Morad Veisi wrote in a tweet on Tuesday: "Khamenei and his office's policy about Ghalibaf's family's controversial visit to Turkey has been one of not clearly supporting Ghalibaf or his critics. Regardless of Ghalibaf's corruption, Khamenei likes his loyalty and his preparedness to suppress protestors at any given time. [The motto is:] Be loyal and supress. Who cares if you ae corrupt?"
Former lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi told Nameh News website in Tehran on Tuesday that the Iranian government has already collapsed, and it will be too late when President Raisi finds out what his advisers have done to the country and the government."
Imanabadi, a moderate-conservative politicians, charged that "Iran has 6 Presidents." He explained that Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has pushed out the Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei, and Vice President for Executive Affairs Solat Mortazavi from the government's Economic Commission, but to wat extent can this measure make Raisi's economic team efficient?"
He charged that while the current economic crisis is the country's most important issue, Raisi knows very little about the economy and his team is still extremely weak and uncoordinated."
Imanabadi said that "all the 6 contestants in the 2021 Presidential election, including Raisi are members of the Raisi Administration." He added: "In other words, the government has 6 presidents, like the proverb 'Too many chiefs and few Indians' ".
"All the existing evidence points to differences in the government's economic team," he said, asking "How can the vice president for economic affairs not be a member of the government's economic team?"
Imanabadi explained: "The is so much pressure on Raisi and he cannot do anything other than make more promises because his economic team does not help him. Planning and Budget Chief Massoud Mirkazemi does whatever pleases him regardless of Raisi’s promises to the people and Mokhber is a big bluffer. We still remember that he said: Five big countries are buying [Covid] vaccines from Iran."
The lawmaker charged that while everything in the country's economy is linked to the nuclear deal, and every interview with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian raises the exchange rate for the US dollar by 10,000 rials, Raisi still insists that he will not tie the fate of the economy to the nuclear deal (JCPOA).
What the lawmaker did not mention, is the fact that trying to publicly minimize the impact of US sanctions is a regime-wide policy imposed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Meanwhile, Political analyst Ali Mohammad Namazi has said in an interview that "If the current situation continues, widespread protests are likely in Iran." Namazi stressed that the Iranian government should reach a nuclear agreement with the United States as soon as possible."
Namazi warned that Iran's treasury is almost broke and the government is not even able to make overdue payments." He exclaimed "Why there is still no nuclear agreement while the economic situation is getting increasingly difficult?"
He quoted other analysts as saying that nothing has changed in the new draft nuclear agreement compared to the one prepared under President Hassan Rouhani," last year and suggested that "The government should be determined to sign the final agreement without insisting on irrelevant matters. But the negotiating team is more focused on symbolic moves rather than on technically down-to-the-point negotiations."
He was implicitly referring to Tehran’s demand for removing the IRGC from the US list of terrorist organizations that have halted the Vienna talks.
Namazi said, "a final agreement will bring about an economic breakthrough that would lead to releasing Iran's frozen assets and facilitate oil normal oil exports. Non-nuclear sanctions can be left for a future when the two sides can have discussions beyond the nuclear issue."
Zabihollah Khodaeian, the judiciary spokesman, told reporters Tuesday that Ahmad Hashemi-Shahroudi was also liable for "returning the funds" in the case involving Sarmayeh Bank. But some media have claimed Hashemi-Shahroudi fled to Iraq when a business partner, Mohammad Emami, was arrested in 2016. Emami has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term, according to Khodaeian.
Another defendant in the case, Shahabeddin Ghandali, former chief executive officer of the Iran Teachers’ Reserve Fund, was arrested in 2016 on charges of embezzling $2.5 billion. The fund, which has 800,000 members and is run by the education ministry, was an investor in Sarmayeh Bank.
According to a confidential report of the Iranian parliament leaked by reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi in December 2020, Hashemi-Shahroudi and Emami took loans from Sarmayeh between 2012 and 2014 to invest in property. They subsequently sold the properties to Sarmayeh at far higher prices, with the bank − according to the report − waiving penalties for late repayment.
The fund lost nearly $3.5 billion of its investments in Sarmayeh Bank as a result of fraud perpetrated by, according to judicial officials, over 400 individuals.
Parviz Kazemi, minister of labor and social welfare under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cabinet, Ammar Salehi, son of army commander Ataollah Salehi, and Hadi Razavi, son-in-law of Mohammad Shariatmadari, minister of labor in Hassan Rouhani's cabinet, were among defendants in the case.
Corruption and cronyism, often associated with political figures and groups, has plagued Iran for over a decade. There have been several massive fraud and embezzlement cases since then, including in major banks and other financial institutions.
In 2017 and 2018 corruption in the financial sector and rising prices sparked the biggest wave of anti-government protests since the unrest over a disputed election in 2009.
In October 2020, Spain extradited Sarmayeh’s former chief executive officer (CEO), Alireza Heydar-Abadipour, who had been arrested in 2019 following a "red notice" to Interpol issued by Iranian police. Heydar-Abadipour had been sentenced in absentia to a 12-year prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement.
Lacking an extradition agreement with Canada, Iran was unable to pursue Mahmoud-Reza Khavari, the former CEO of the state-owned Melli Bank, who fled to Canada in 2010, after being accused of embezzling billions of dollars.
In 2017 and 2018, protesters who lost their deposits in the Samen al-Hojaj Finance and Credit Institution in Khorasan province held rallies in front of banks and other financial institutions. Samen al-Hojaj, which went into liquidation, had lent tens of millions of dollars at a very low interest rate and paid high salaries to some officials, while not paying dividends to small investors lured with promises of high returns.
