Former Manager of Gheshm Free Trade Zone Arrested

Rooz Online

With the arrest of the former manager of the Iran’s Gheshm Free Trade Authority in the Persian Gulf the widespread corruption issue in the region in recent years has once again become the topic of discussion. Reports confirm that the judiciary chief of the Hormozgan province which oversees the free zone that was run by the “former” manager has arrested the manager on charges of embezzlement and mismanagement of the airport project of the island, among other issues.

As reported by Tabnak website, Mohammad Sadegh Akbari, the head of Hormozgan province judiciary announced, “The case is under investigation. A former manager of the Gheshm Free Trade Authority has been temporarily arrested while a number of other managers have been summoned for interrogation. The case was filed following complaints over land issues regarding the old airport in the zone and other financial corruption issues in the province.”

While the official did not provide any further details about the case, the title of “former” manager that is mentioned by Akbari would point the finger on Esfandiar Heydaripour who was the head of the zone between 2011 and 2013 and who had earlier revealed serious financial corruption related to the zone.

It is revealing that the first manger of the zone after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration was Shahriyar Moshiri who was removed from office by outside pressure and who revealed some of the spectacular and widespread financial corruptions that went on during the previous administration.

Sharq website had reported that Moshiri had said, “Gheshm Free Trade area was used as a backyard for the operations of some government officials of the previous administration. The amount of money belonging to the national treasury that was withheld there amounts to billions of Tomans. The zone was used to buy land and property for special people. There were no plans to develop the island whatsoever. The zone was used to import goods into Iran without paying any duties or taxes, opening the way to financial corruption.” Sharq also wrote that Moshiri had disclosed widespread corruption on the island even earlier and detailed it by saying “free land and buildings, and even cash relating to property that belonged to the public was given to specific individuals.” According to him, supervisory agencies did nothing about this corruption, allowing “economic terrorists” to flourish on the island as public property and rights were trampled on.

The zone was planned to generate its own revenues through the sale of its lands. But now that the lands have been distributed, there is nothing to sell or build on to generate revenue. Moshiri gave an example of the kind of corruption that was practiced on the island in these words: “A 10,000 meter piece of land, which was to be used to build a hotel on the island, was sold to a person for one tenth of its market value.”

Speaking to another newspaper, Etemad, Moshiri threw more light on what was happening on the island. “Most of the financial corruption was over the sale of land. Most of the sale took place Turkmanchai treaty style (a reference to the humiliating 1828 treaty between Iran and Russia which ended the 3-year war between the two neighbors and by which Iran ceded large amounts of its northern territory to its northern neighbor) where no money was received by the Free Trade Zone for the land transfers. Other individuals received letters of intent and privileges without making any payment. One person received 50 million Dollars in credit from the regional banks to purchase a ship, but ultimately delivered nothing and claimed that the ships had been stolen. But ultimately no reports surfaced about the supposed theft of any ships. Currently, while the organization has 1,200 employees on its rosters, its bank accounts have zero money in them, even though its expenses amount to over 20 billion Toman (the market exchange rate is about 3,100 Toman to a US Dollar).” Moshiri was removed from his post after these disclosures and revelations.

But Moshiri is not the only person to expose the corruption there. Akbar Torkan, the special advisor to the former president on the free trade zones in the country also recently revealed on national TV that, “A building was set aside for Ahmadinejad’s university (called Iranian University) on Gheshm island and this is where all the corruption occurred. This is a government property, how could it be rented to anybody? Why was such property plundered and looted?”

It appears that the arrest of the former manager of Gheshm island free trade zone is related to Baghai’s arrest last week. Baghai was in charge of the free trade zones and advised the then president Ahmadinejad on them.