Al-Monitor | Bijan Khajehpour: On Jan. 28, at an event celebrating 50 years of capital markets in Iran, the head of the Central Bank of Iran,�Valiollah Seif,�publicly stated, �The formidable power of illegal stakeholders on Iran's economy has rendered reforming the economy difficult.� These illegal stakeholders, who have also been referred to as shady interest groups, are most accurately described as �corrupt networks.�


One key question is why no Iranian government has managed to push back against these networks. Officials such as Seif only refer to �people who are addicted to free rides on the Iranian economy� without disclosing who they actually are. Occasionally, some corrupt businessmen have emerged, such as�Babak Zanjani, but even in their trials, names of officials involved in the corrupt schemes in question are treated as confidential. This is a process that gives a certain degree of immunity to corrupt officials.

Recently, in light of the massive protests in Iran, there has been a greater admission by top officials that corruption has reached unprecedented levels in the country. On Feb. 8, Supreme Leader Ayatollah�Ali Khamenei�said, �Corruption is like the seven-headed dragon � it is difficult to eliminate, but it has to happen!� Once again, he urged all branches of power to fight this scourge.

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