TEHRAN: An Iranian businessman convicted of masterminding a $2.6 billion banking scam, the biggest fraud case in the country’s history, was hanged on Saturday, state media reported.

Mahafarid Amir Khosravi was sent to the gallows in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, the official IRNA news agency reported.

He was sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth...through bribery and money laundering,” a justice department statement carried by Iranian media said.

Revelations about the scandal swept Iran in 2011 when prosecutors said they uncovered a private umbrella group, led by Amir Khosravi and his brothers, illegally amassing billions of dollars.—AFP

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2014