Continuing the examination of documents obtained from the contract between Bid Boland Gas Company and Petro Niroo Saba shows that the issue of widespread violations in the contract for the collection of Ramshir and Karun gas flares has entered a new phase. Despite managerial changes at Bid Boland Gas Company, concerns about the continuation of past trends remain. According to these documents, Petro Niroo Saba, which was previously removed from the project under Article 68 due to document forgery, inability to deliver equipment, financial violations, and invoice fabrication, is now once again supported by some managers and influential figures.
According to reports, Hassan Neshanzadeh, the newly appointed CEO of Bid Boland Gas Company, is following the same path as former CEOs Mahmoud Aminnejad and Jovanshir Sadeghi— and efforts to obtain new funding from the southern oil-rich regions to bring Petro Niroo back to the project are underway. This action can be assessed in the context of a multi-thousand-billion-toman corruption case.
Unsupervised Payments and Accusations of Receiving Shares by Former Managers
Based on financial documents and recorded minutes, Mahmoud Aminnejad, during his management period, paid a significant portion of the contract amounts even in the early stages of the project and without sufficient oversight. In internal correspondence, the source of this action is described as "the suspicion of receiving shares from Petro Niroo," and the roles of Farhad Reza Nejad as Aminnejad's deputy and a person named Ashkan Taraz, who served as Reza's deputy at Bid Boland, in transferring these amounts should be seriously investigated.
Part of these funds was paid in foreign currency in Turkey to Petro Niroo managers. Ashkan Taraz's sudden resignation citing illness and his subsequent employment in Qatar's oil projects have strengthened the suspicion of his involvement in purchasing property in Turkey and Spain in collaboration with Aminnejad and Reza Nejad.
The payment of 2,897,430 euros outside the CBS approved project, which according to documents was provided in cash in Turkey to Petro Niroo managers, is among the foreign currency amounts
Payment of 57
million euros for undelivered equipment
According to official documents, large foreign currency amounts were paid to Petro Niroo under the title of importing compressors amounting to 57 million euros and also for project equipment, but according to customs and central bank inquiries, this company "did not add even a single screw" to the project.
Despite proving multiple violations including invoice fabrication, declaring fake purchases, and claiming payments to contractors while the company had over 1000 billion tomans of accumulated debt to local groups, foreign and local currency payments did not stop during Aminnejad's management.
In the matter of purchasing machinery, only in one instance, the claimed expenditure was stated as 411,738,201,380 rials, while confirming documents indicate that this amount was at most 146,451,500,000. Additionally, the oversight committee documents state that some of these approved machinery are not present at the workshop sites.
Refusal to Enforce Guarantees
Although according to Article 68 of the contract, it was possible to enforce guarantees and revoke the contract, Aminnejad never took practical steps to activate the guarantees. A key point about Aminnejad's role from the beginning in creating this corruption chain was accepting the guarantee of Petro Niroo Saba with a value of 5 thousand billion, which was far less than the amounts set for payment to this company. Even executing this property today cannot cover all the damages caused to Bid Boland. This clearly shows the inefficiency of oversight and widespread violations during his management.
Aminnejad's Family Background, His Judicial Protective Shield
One of the reasons for the increased ability of Aminnejad's interventions and the silence of oversight bodies is the coordination of his management team with the network of parliament members. This issue goes back to Aminnejad's family background.
Mahmoud Aminnejad is the son-in-law of Kamel Abedinzadeh, a former parliament representative from West Azerbaijan and a close associate of Masoud Pezeshkian, who was among the few close to him that accompanied him when Pezeshkian entered the presidential institution. This marriage may have created opportunities for Aminnejad's growth and protection against the charges leveled against him. The issue of family favoritism in Aminnejad's field of activity is such that he has, at times, tried to place his brother-in-law in managerial positions at Bid Boland or other subsidiaries of the Persian Gulf Holding. Kamel Abedinzadeh's son, with Aminnejad's issued orders, held various positions in the flare collection project, and considering the Abedinzadeh family's active charity activities with Aminnejad's wife's active presence, there is speculation that part of Aminnejad's received amounts in this contract were covered through charity accounts belonging to his wife's family.
Aminnejad's Presence After Dismissal in the Position of Deputy of Planning and Business Development of the Persian Gulf Holding has given him an opportunity to keep the legal and managerial body of the holding silent against the catastrophic violations during his management of Bid Boland.
The Ambiguous Continuation During Sadeghi's Period/ Payment of 37
million euros for 10
Unspecified Compressors
With Aminnejad's dismissal, it was expected that the new management would provide the groundwork for reforming the processes, but existing documents show that Jovanshir Sadeghi also made heavy and questionable payments.
According to obtained documents, Sadeghi, in agreement with a contractor named Shajar, paid 37 million euros for the delivery of 10
compressor units; while previously, a heavy cost had been paid to Nika Compressor Company for 5
compressor units, and the managers of this company have stated that the amounts they received are far from what Petro Niroo claimed. In this matter, Nika Compressor managers explicitly stated in a letter to Aminnejad that they only received 2 million 800 million euros from their 14 million 500 thousand euro contract.
The fundamental ambiguity is for which contract these 10
units were paid, and why Sadeghi, despite previous violations by Petro Niroo, continued payments of tens of millions of euros?
The Role of Parliament Members in Pressuring for Continued Cooperation with Petro Niroo
A significant part of this case is attributed to the pressure from some parliament members. According to documents, Mohammad Talaei Mazloumi, the representative of Behbahan, not only supported Petro Niroo but even signed some minutes as the company's representative. At various stages, he pressured Bid Boland managers and the Ministry of Oil, claiming that "the condition for completing the project is continued cooperation with Petro Niroo."
The close relationship between Omran Baoj, the chairman of Petro Niroo, with Mazloumi and Amir Hossein Nazari is one of the points noted by inspectors. Nazari and Mazloumi are both accused of receiving a significant portion of their campaign expenses from companies related to this project—especially Petro Niroo—.
It should not be forgotten that insiders have said Baoj, in some joint meetings with contractors with delayed claims, explicitly stated that with just 1000 billion tomans, he could buy and control a significant portion of parliament members. An assertion that is at least evident in the full support of Nazari and Mazloumi for him.
Documents show that contractors introduced by these representatives paid 300 to 400 million tomans monthly to Majid Ahmadi, the project workshop manager, and these amounts, after circulating through the accounts of individuals like Ameneh Khosravi and Mona Askari, were ultimately deposited into the accounts of Omran Baoj and a person named Rezaei Vahed to pay the representatives' shares.
Continue the report below the infographic
The Role of the Former Governor of Ramshir and Interference in Halting Judicial Processes
Local creditors have repeatedly stated that the former governor of Ramshir, by holding multiple meetings in his office, prevented the submission of Petro Niroo's violation cases to the judiciary and even claimed to be "the guarantor of their payment claims".
Simultaneously, there are reports of electoral violations and vote-buying in favor of Petro Niroo's supporting representatives during his management period.
Prevention by Some Managers of the Persian Gulf Holding from Revoking Petro Niroo's Contract
While reports indicate that in just the first two years of Petro Niroo's activity, about 10 thousand billion tomans of national resources were wasted, the legal manager of the Persian Gulf Holding at times sent official letters requesting the prevention of the company's contract revocation, considering this issue "of national sensitivity".
This action was taken despite Petro Niroo's violations, including document forgery, fake foreign invoices, and repeated expense reports, being officially reported to him.
Return to the Starting Point; Concerns About the New Management
While the dismissal of Aminnejad and Sadeghi was accompanied by hopes for reform, it is now heard that Hassan Neshanzadeh has also agreed to Petro Niroo's request for the injection of 2 thousand billion tomans of new budget; an action that will likely bring this company back to the project and perpetuate the "cycle of resource waste".
The full report and its documents are in the attached PDF file