Iran says court sentences billionaire to death in graft case

[Lodestar]

Source: Reuters

A court in Iran has sentenced to death Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani and two accomplices for embezzlement, the judiciary said on Sunday, in a case widely watched due to the billionaire's prominent role in helping the government evade oil sanctions.

The Islamic court convicted the defendants of "spreading corruption on earth", a capital offence, and ordered them to repay funds embezzled from, among others, state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on live television.

The defendants can appeal against the ruling.

"The court of first instance ... sentenced the three defendants to death," Ejei said in a weekly news conference. The three were also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to one fourth of the sums they had laundered, he said.

By his own account, Zanjani for years arranged billions of dollars of oil deals through a network of companies stretching from Turkey to Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Zanjani amassed a fortune of $10 billion - along with debts of a similar scale, the tycoon once told an Iranian magazine.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/iran-court-sentence-idUSL5N16E09S

[AllyCat]

1. While I certainly would like to see our grafting billionaires and millionaires

Pay for their crimes, this is certainly excessive.

[Lodestar]

3. My thought was that this first sentencing phase is strictly for effect

and public show. I'm guessing they will get a reduced sentence on appeal.

[Dustlawyer]

2. They need to be civilized like us, we only execute poor people!

[Eugene]

4. Mr. Zanjani outlived his usefulness.

An expert sanctions buster with sticky fingers.

[Bradical79]

5. I'm against the death penalty but

I do like the idea of formally charging criminal billionaires with "spreading corruption on Earth".