The oil merchants say foreigners, who they assume are engaged on behalf of america, have provided astronomical sums, starting from $100,000 to $1 million, only for the checking account numbers the Oil Ministry utilized in a sale. Among the foreigners have promised visas to america, the merchants stated.
One dealer admitted to having been duped: The Armenian prostitutes persuaded him to make use of their names to register entrance corporations in Armenia to facilitate banking transactions. After the ladies had been caught soliciting purchasers in Iran, he stated, Iranian safety forces referred to as him in for questioning and he ended the connection.
Overseas purchasers, too, are paranoid due to the secondary sanctions that america would place on them if they’re caught shopping for Iranian oil. Merchants stated that on journeys overseas, purchasers requested them to modify accommodations in the course of the night time. Merchants stated it was not unusual to be questioned at airports abroad. In not less than one case, a international buyer dispatched feminine brokers, wearing tight attire and heels, to check what info a dealer would possibly reveal.
If the spying costs had been meant to ship a message to Iran’s oil merchants, the message was heard.
One dealer stated he referred to as the intelligence department of the Oil Ministry and proactively gave him some details about a suspicious European who had visited his workplace. One other deleted textual content messages and blocked the variety of a girl who launched herself as a Swedish Ph.D. pupil researching Iran’s oil commerce.
Hassan Soleimani, the editor in chief of Mashregh, a newspaper affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, confirmed that the spy ring arrests concerned oil espionage. So did an Iranian politician and two oil merchants, all of whom spoke on situation of anonymity.
Most of the 17 individuals accused of spying had labored within the oil and power sector as merchants and brokers, the 2 merchants stated. They’d come underneath scrutiny due to contacts with foreigners on their journeys overseas.