Trustees who sold 80 million barrels of oil flee after the Islamabad understanding

Some of the trustees who sold about 80 million barrels of Iranian oil after the "Islamabad understanding" have fled and have not returned the money. Reza Sepahvand, spokesman of the energy committee of the Islamic Republic's parliament, said the oil was entrusted to four trustees and that the failure to bring back the revenue has deepened the currency problems.

Mohammad Motamedizadeh, a member of the presiding board of parliament's Article 90 committee, said the cargoes were handed to companies that had not returned the proceeds of earlier sales either and whose qualifications had not been checked. He said the Article 90 committee is pursuing the money together with the judiciary. Media estimates put the gross value of the oil at about 9 billion dollars at 113 dollars a barrel; this figure is the value of the oil, not a confirmed amount owed.

The Supreme National Security Council approves the trustees

According to Sepahvand, trustees are approved by the Supreme National Security Council, not by the oil ministry, and the approval of Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Shamkhani, the council's former secretary who was killed in the war, also came from this council. The details of each trustee's share of the cargoes and the state of their debts have not been officially published.

Jafar Ghaderi, a member of the economic committee, said that every time lawmakers asked for the trustees' names they were told the information was "confidential". Three lawmakers have called for an inquiry into the trustees, and the energy committee is to merge their requests. Mehrdad Lahouti, a member of the plan and budget committee, said that even if the trustees return the money, between 500 million and nearly 1 billion dollars will remain with them.

A history of oil money that never came back

Zabihollah Khodaian, head of the Islamic Republic's General Inspection Organization, said this summer that 20,676 individuals and companies had failed to return about 94 billion euros of export revenue and that one trustee had left the country with 200 million dollars. The affair recalls the case of Babak Zanjani. The rift inside the Islamic Republic over a deal with the United States has also come into the open in recent days.

Oil money that should have reached Iranians' tables stayed in the hands of trustees approved by the Supreme National Security Council.