TEHRAN -- A former governor of Iran’s central bank was sentenced Saturday to 10 years in jail over the loss of $160 million and 20 million euros in foreign currency trading.
Valiollah Seif, who headed the monetary authority between 2013 and 2018, is the first Iranian central bank governor ever to be indicted. Seif, 69, remains free pending an appeal.
The judiciary’s website said he had repeatedly broken the law along with his deputy, Ahmad Araqchi, who was handed an eight-year jail term.
A third senior figure at the central bank, Rassoul Sajad, received a 13-year sentence for illegal foreign currency trading and taking bribes.
Besides violating the currency system, Seif also had a role in smuggling foreign currency, judiciary spokesman Zabihollah Khodaeian told national TV.
Eight others were also sentenced to various prison terms, he said. All of the defendants have the right to appeal.
Seif was governor of Iran’s central bank for five years until 2018 under former President Hassan Rouhani. Araqchi was his deputy from 2017 to 2018.
National TV said they were involved in violations of the currency market in 2016, a time when the Iranian rial sustained considerable losses in value against major foreign currencies.
The defendants illegally injected $160 million and 20 million euros into the market, it said.
The rial exchange rate was at 39,000 to $1 in 2017 at the beginning of Araqchi’s time in office but it reached more than 110,000 to $1 by the time he was dismissed in 2018. The change partly coincided with severe U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran.