An Iranian court has convicted the former top officials of the Central Bank of Iran, including ex-Governor Valiollah Seif, in relation to foreign exchange market turbulations six years ago.

Seif, his former deputy Ahmad Araqchi, and his former adviser Salar Aqakhani, were convicted for actions deemed equivalent to the smuggling of foreign exchange.

Seif, who headed the central bank for five years, was replaced by Abdolnaser Hemmati in July. He oversaw a period of economic growth after sanctions on Iran were temporarily removed under the 2015 nuclear deal. Saif also cracked down on illegal credit institutions, many of which collapsed or had to be bailed out by the government.

But he was criticized by Pex-resident Hassan Rouhani’s political opponents for failing to stem a drop in the value of the rial.

Seif, who directed the Central Bank from 2013 to 2018, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Araqchi to eight, in 2021 for mismanaging public funds.

Several months later, however, Iran’s Supreme Court acquitted Seif and his deputies.

The high court said that the defendants had been in charge of implementing macro foreign exchange policies, and therefore, criminalizing their actions and attributing the crime of disrupting the country’s economic system to them would not be legally justified.

By Iran Front Page