OIL-FOR-GOLD SANCTIONS EVADER BABAK ZANJANI SUES HIS PARTNERS IN IRAN

Zanjani, in blue uniform, and his attorney, at trial.

 Multiple sources in Iran have confirmed that Babak Zanjani, one of the principal players in Iran's massive oil-for-gold sanctions evasion scheme, has brought a civil suit in Iran against two of his partners, Reza Zarrab and Alireza Monfared. Zanjani is imprisoned in Iran; he was convicted of "Spreading Corruption on Eatch," and sentenced to death on 2016, for stealing more than $2bn of Iran's illicit oil revenue.

He has named two of his former partners in the suit:

(1) Reza Zarrab, the Turkish-Iranian gold trader who was charged in the United States with multiple crimes, but who is currently cooperating with the authorities, and living in the United States.it is not known which law enforcement or intelligence agency he is working with, but it is assumed that it is one of the intelligence services, judging by the fact that he is unsupervised, and moving freely around New York.

Reza Zarrab

(2) Alireza Monfared, who handled the sales through the Malaysian offshore financial center of Labuan, and who held both CBI and diplomatic passports from the Commonwealth of Dominica. He is also in custody in Iran, but he has never appeared publicly in a courtroom, in reference to the corruption charges. He is suspected of being a former Iranian intelligence agent who participated in the theft of the $2bn from oil sales receipts.

Dominica PM Roosevelt Skerrit and "diplomat" Alireza Monfared

Zanjani's attorneys have been informed that, if the $2bn is returned, his death sentence will be commuted to a lesser punishment. The money is believed to be held securely outside Iran, through there are indications that Zarrab may have turned over some of it to the United States, in connection with a plea agreement that included the disgorgement of profits or criminal proceeds.

Is Zanjani seeking to recover sufficient funds to buy his way out of the death penalty he presently has hovering over his head ?