Tasnim – The Intelligence forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), in another move to combat economic corruption, managed to arrest members of a major money laundering ring in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan.

The intelligence forces of the IRGC in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, identified and apprehended the ringleaders of the criminal network, which created sham companies, pretending to import paper to receive subsidized foreign currency from the government.

The main defendant in this case, in complicity with some bank clerks and managers and a Turkish national, had infiltrated into Iran’s banking network and received huge amounts of subsidized currency from the government.

Back in January, the Intelligence Ministry forces in the province of Qazvin arrested 12 members of a network on charges of disrupting the country’s currency market, smuggling currency through illegal trades, tax evasion, and money laundering.

The network had been doing fraudulent activities in the provinces of Qazvin, Tehran, and Mazandaran. Its ringleader was also detained before fleeing the country.

In another operation, the Intelligence Ministry forces captured 13 individuals in the province of East Azarbaijan for disrupting the country’s currency market. A number of them were arrested before crossing the border with fake ID cards.

The network received subsidized foreign currency with business certificates of sham companies.

Also in December 2018, the Intelligence Ministry arrested members of another major network that had swindled the country’s banks out of millions of euros by infiltrating into the banking system.