A financial director at the Iran's oil ministry was arrested on Wednesday, June 19, while trying to take $25 million out of the country, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)-run Tasnim news agency reported.
Tasnim added that the Oil Ministry official had deposited the money in the bank account of a currency exchange bureau.
The owner of the business has also been arrested, and his bank account blocked, Tasnim affirmed.
Rejecting Tasnim's report as unfounded and made up by "particular individuals” the Oil ministry's news website, SHANA has insisted there is no such position as "financial director" in the Oil Ministry's managerial structure.
But in a little-noticed news dispatch, SHANA itself acknowledged that officials audited one of its subsidiaries, which had deposited a significant amount of hard currencies for nearly one year in a currency exchange bureau.
"The Ministry of Intelligence (MI) and the public prosecutor for combating financial banking crimes stepped in and prevented any possible misappropriation of the deposited money," SHANA added in its report.
However, this is the second time that the Intelligence Ministry's agents have involved themselves in cases related to the Oil Ministry's managers in recent months.
Earlier, several conservative members of Majles (Iranian parliament) had reported this year that "some officials serving at the office of the Oil Minister used the office credit card reader and received bribes from the managers of several oil and gas companies and deposited the money to their own bank accounts.
In the meantime, the hardline representative of the city of Najafabad to Majles, Abolfazl Abu Torabi, claimed recently that the intelligence agents had discovered three credit card readers with one trillion rials (approximately $23.7 million) cash flow, and some hard currencies in cash, as well as some gold at the Oil Minister's office.
Although, the Ministry of Intelligence denied Abu Torabi's specific allegations, it admitted its was investigating illegal financial activities at the oil ministry.
