Iran intelligence officials allegedly stole digital assets while pretending to investigate a corruption case. According to local outlet Iran International, the senior officers attached to the country’s Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence organization stole about $21 million in digital assets while investigating a corruption case.
According to the report, the agency was investigating the CEO of Cryptoland, Sina Estavi, whose crypto exchange shut down in May 2021 after he was arrested by authorities. At the time of his arrest, no official complaint was lodged. However, once news of his arrest broke out, thousands of aggrieved customers lodged complaints against him and his platform.
After his arrest, another local outlet, Mizan news reported that about 51,000 plaintiffs submitted different degrees of complaints against the CEO. The BRG token, which was developed by Estavi and his platform, collapsed after he was arrested. Blockchain records also showed that a day after he was arrested, six billion BRG tokens were moved from his wallet before news of his arrest broke out to the general public.
Iran intelligence agency accused of crypto theft
According to reports, the moved tokens were then sold off by IRGC officials, netting them tens of millions of dollars, which they kept for themselves. An expert appointed by the court identified two key figures in the operation, Mehdi Hajipour and Mehdi Badi, who are both senior interrogators in the economic branch of the IRGC. The expert revealed that a wallet under the control of Hajipour sold about $21 million worth of BRG tokens.
In March 2022, Iran’s IRGC counterintelligence agents apprehended Hajipour in a sting operation. He was caught accepting $10,000 from Estavi, who he had tricked into thinking he was buying back the stolen tokens from a third party. Unknown to Estavi, the third-party was a fake identity that was created by Hajipour.
According to court documents, before the theft, Hajipour’s assets were worth about 10 billion rials ($40,000). Four months after the theft, his fortune had climbed 600 billion rials, which he had spent on real estate, gold, and luxury vehicles.
According to the court documents, after he was apprehended, Hajipour was detained in Ward 66, a prison used to hold IRGC personnel. The documents also showed that he had a network of senior interrogators in Iran’s IRGC intelligence organization working alongside him.
Meanwhile, the second suspect in the case, Mehdi Badi was a senior interrogator who had been operating under the alias Dr. Ebadi. His name appeared in many cases related to corruption investigations at the IRGC economic department.
Court documents unveil other suspects
According to court documents, two other interrogators from the intelligence organization of the IRGC, Majid Jahan Parto and Majid Tabatabaei were also named as members of the network. The document also listed four other accomplices who provided help to the gang of interrogators, usually assisting them by forging documents. The fates of the individuals are still hanging in the balance, with Hajipour’s appeal rejected by the court in September 2022.
However, Sina Estavi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered by the court to return the embezzled funds. He had initially fled the country after being under pressure from the group of investigators, who had stolen the funds the victims reported. Three months after Hajipour was arrested, the IRGC dismissed Hossein Taeb from his position as the head of the intelligence organization. He has since been replaced by Mohammad Kazemi.
Half of the victims have received their funds, with the funds, which was approximately $14 million paid from Estavi’s account while he was in prison. Meanwhile, around 25,000 others are still being owed with no signs of a repayment nearby. Most of the remaining funds meant to pay the creditors are from the stolen tokens, which are yet to be returned by the group of interrogators that sold them for profit.
