TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- One of the primary suspects involved in a massive financial corruption case in Iran’s petrochemical sector has fled the country, reports said on Wednesday.
"Former executive director of the Iranian Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC), Mehdi Sharifi Niknafs, has fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE),” the Young Journalists Club (YJC) disclosed.
Earlier this month, the Islamic Republic Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, had appointed Sharifi Niknafs as a member of the board of directors of Esteqlal soccer club.
Nevertheless, immediately after the YJC disclosure the ministry denied Sharifi Niknafs’ appointment.
On March 13, 2019, the National Iranian Petrochemical Industries Company (NIPIC) announced that IPCC "has failed to return 500 million euros of debt to NIPIC since 2013.”
The statement also asserted that managers of IPCC paid the government for oil exports in local currency instead of euros, pocketing illegal profits in the process. The suspects allegedly kept the foreign currency gained from exports in their

private accounts and stole the interest. Fourteen people have been charged in the case.
Fourteen people were indicted, and a long trial ensued, but Sharifi Niknafs’ name was not on the list of suspects.
An outspoken political activist and former legislator, Alireza Zakani, has said that multiple crimes were committed in the IPCC under Mehdi Sharifi Niknafs’ directorship.