reported by PMOI/MEK
Iran, Jan. 2019 – On Tuesday, the customers of Caspian Credit Institution held a demonstration in front of the offices of this organization in Rasht and demanded the return of their plundered investments.
“We’ve been running for three years, but the only response we’ve received is threats,” the protesters we’re saying. “We’re fed up with betrayal. We want justice.”
Caspian is an institution that has been founded with full support and permit from the government ministries and and the Central Bank of Iran. It was one of several credit institutions that were involved in a large fraud scam that absorbed billions of dollars’ worth of investments from millions of Iranians with promises of quick return on investments.
In 2017, one of the subsidiaries of Caspian declared that it was faced with a large budget and fund deficit. Sensing the collapse of the institution was near, investors rushed to retrieve their deposits. But the managers of Caspian prevented their customers from taking back their money and froze their assets.
Regime officials have tried to distance themselves from the schemes run by Caspian and other credit and financial institutions. But for the millions of Iranians who have seen their lifesavings disappear through thin air as a result of the scam, there’s no doubt that the highest levels of the Iranian regime were aware and complicit in this billion-dollar fraud case.
On Tuesday, the protesters in Rasht were chanting slogans directly aimed at government officials. “Death to the hands behind the scenes,” the protesters were shouting, a reference to government officials that orchestrated the fraud and are preventing the details of the story from coming to light.
“Our stolen money is under the [dress of the mullahs]” and “The government has betrayed the people and plundered their wealth” were other slogans chanted at the demonstration, directly targeting the Iranian regime and the ruling mullahs for the corruption that has taken its toll on the livelihoods of the Iranian people in the past 40 years.
Caspian has over 100 branches across Iran. Rasht is just one of the many cities where protests have taken place in front of Caspian offices since the crisis of credit institutions began two years ago.
