The former CEO of Iranian Melli Bank, Mahmoud-Reza Khavari, has reportedly escaped to Canada after an embezzlement scandal was discovered in the Islamic Republic, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Friday.
Khavari was reported to return to Tehran on Friday morning by a British Airways flight, however, the airplane landed without him, said the report.
Iranian media recently reported that several Iranian banks were swindled out of nearly 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in more than two years by holding a company named Amir Mansour Aria. This scam is said to be one of the biggest frauds in history of the Islamic Republic.
Khavari resigned on Tuesday as he had come under pressure over the Melli Bank's role in the embezzlement case. After his resignation, Khavari was reported to have left Iran for Canada.
The Iranian prosecutor general, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, who was assigned on Sept. 15 to exclusively investigate into the embezzlement case, said that "If Khavari does not return to Iran, many accusations will be levelled against him."
Mohseni-Ejei said on Monday that "So far 22 suspects in the recent financial corruption have been interrogated, and arrest warrants have been issued for all of them."
Source: Xinhua
