The corruption case of Refah chain stores is recognized as a widespread economic violation. This violation encompasses a large range of a network of banking managers, high-ranking government officials down to ministers, and a spectrum of rent-seeking economic networks that are also mentioned in other cases such as the Zanjan urea and ammonia project.
Decision-Making Core and Repetitive Roles
At the center of this network, companies like Baztab Saham Toos and Danayan Financial Group appear as operational tools. A circle of real individuals including Hossein Abdeh Tabrizi, Mohammad Reza Modiri, Babak Jahanara, Farhood Saberi Sarabi, and Asghar Fakhri Kashan form the real decision-making core of this group known as the Zanjan Circle.
Purchasing shares of Refah company at a price lower than the actual price amounting to 4,544,427,165,280 rials (a price difference of 280,104,970 million shares traded at a price based on the calculation of net asset value) has led to participation in collusion for conducting a government transaction without adhering to legal formalities and buying and selling shares without the opinion of an official court expert and at a price lower than the actual price, disregarding the interests and welfare of shareholders.
Risk Transfer to Public Resources
This decision-making network involves a division of roles and a repetitive pattern of transferring risk from themselves to public resources and small investors. From the transfer of shares of Refah store to the allocation of hundreds of millions of euros in foreign credit for the Zanjan urea and ammonia project, names and roles are repeated; only the shells have changed.
More details and a video file are available on the Fidous channel.