Iran Police Claim Arrest Of 13 People After Large Bank Heist
Iranian police Friday displayed recovered money and gold after they announced the arrest of 13 people allegedly involved in a recent large bank heist in Tehran.
Iranian police Friday displayed recovered money and gold after they announced the arrest of 13 people allegedly involved in a recent large bank heist in Tehran.
The surprisingly quick reaction by the police still leaves many questions unanswered about the robbery of safety deposit boxes at a central branch of Bank Melli (National Bank) near Tehran University and half a mile distance from Supreme Leader Ali Khamnei’s headquarters and residence in central Tehran.
Officials produced a photo of nine people in prison uniform standing against a prison wall, with their faces hidden, while one police official claimed some had been arrested during a shootout and were wounded, but there was no indication in the photo of wounded detainees.
They also said that three of the 13 people detained were caught after fleeing to Turkey, but so far there are no reports in Turkish media.
Whoever robbed up to 250 safety deposit boxes took advantage of a long weekend in Iran and by some accounts they entered the vault housing the boxes sometime at night and completed the heist on Friday, but it remained unknown until Monday when the bank re-opened.
Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard published a video showing a large table covered with hundreds of plastic bags containing foreign currency, gold and documents, saying authorities have laid out the stolen loot for owners of the safety deposit boxes to identify.
It was not clear how officials separated the recovered money and gold in separate bags when they had said earlier that the bank had no idea what customers kept in their boxes, which is always the case in all banks.
Many Iranians remained skeptical of the whole saga, as earlier suspicions fell on political actors rather than ordinary criminals being behind the heist. Two lines of conspiracy theories quickly took root. First, that adversaries of the Islamic Republic who have been conducting sabotage acts in the country were behind what was seen as an extremely difficult operation.
Second, suspicions fell on internal actors who ostensibly broke into the bank not to steal money but to get hold of politically sensitive documents that current or former politicians might have hidden as a bargaining chip.
One theory circulating on social media pointed at documents possibly kept by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly threatened in the past to reveal secrets about politicians and officials. “Shall I tell?” is a well-known refrain by Ahmadinejad over the past decade.
The police have not said how they were able to catch the burglars in 48 hours, as they claimed on Friday. Their identities have also not been disclosed.
There are also no details yet about how the burglars were able to break through multiple security barriers in the bank, where according to earlier reports they also stole the main security server with all CCTV recordings.
Asked by reporters if bank employees might have been involved, Tehran’s police chief rejected the notion but accused the bank of failing to have adequate security measures in place. He added that one month earlier, police investigators who surveyed security at the branch warned the management of inadequate measures.
Raja News website which speaks for the ultraconservative Paydari party quoted governor general of Khuzestan Province Sadegh Khalilian as saying that the Metropol Towers were built during Iran's previous government, adding that "the building was erected on the foundations of corruption and unhealthy relations."
Officials say they have recovered more than 40 bodies but citizens say many more people were inside when it collapsed.
Earlier, Iranian media and social media activists had pointed out that the owner of Metropol maintained illicit links to individuals, as high-ranking as Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of National Security. They accused the bigwig of helping the owner Hossein Abdolbaghi by using his influence through local officials including his nephew Mo'ud Shamkhani.
Mr. Shamkhani, an IRGC general, categorically denied using his influence, but subsequently, other reports mentioned further details about the link including family bonds between the Shamkhanis and Abdolbaghis, which could not be denied.
The decision to hint at some of the corruption involved in building the towers could have been made at a higher level in the government. The official Instagram account of the Iranian government on June 5 also posted a photo of the ruins of Metropol Tower in Abadan that collapsed on 23 May. The text in the post quoted Khalilian as saying: "The Metropol incident is the consequence of unhealthy relations and lack of supervisory measures."
Khalilian was the first high-level official to confirm media reports about financial corruption in the tragedy. He acknowledged that there has been corruption in the province dating back to 2015-2020, distancing himself and the Raisi administration that assumed office in 2021.
Unlike most of Iran's local governors who come from the Revolutionary Guard’s top brass, Khalilian was previously an academic at the University of Ahvaz and the Teachers Training University in Tehran although he had started his career as a petty officer in the IRGC.
Khalilian said that the local authorities at the time were aware of the building's instability in with at least two series of reports given to them by the engineering supervisory body in 2017 and 2019, but they simply ignored it because of those "unhealthy relations", which means bribery in the Iranian administrative jargon.
He added that the building was illegally constructed in an alleyway that was only 4 meters wide and this made search and rescue efforts difficult, and that the building permit was for a 6-story building and five floors were added later.
Khalilian had earlier said that 13 local officials including the cities last three mayors are under arrest. Earlier this week, former governor general of Khuzestan Gholamreza Shariati who has been implicated in corruption cases, left Iran for the United Arab Emirates and reports about his "escape" were published on social media. Later, the Iranian Judiciary said that he was not implicated in the case.
On Tuesday, Shariati wrote on social media that he is back in Iran, however, there is no evidence that the statement was really made by him or if he did return. Khalilian said that leaving the country was a mistake by the former governor and called on the judiciary to take this into account.
Talking further about corruption Khalilian said, "Perhaps no money has changed hands, but when high-ranking officials take part in the opening ceremony of the building, this creates an aura of security around the owner, and everyone believes that he is a well-connected person."
Initial reports by local reporters living abroad indicated that Abdolbaghi had given expensive lands or buildings to some local officials as gift.