Investigation finds Iran’s biggest crypto scam was scammed by its own government

Court documents cited in the report reveal Mehdi Hajipour and Mehdi Badi, senior interrogators in the IRGC’s economic branch, orchestrated the entire scheme.

By Jewish Breaking News

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard presented themselves as anti-corruption crusaders when they arrested Sina Estavi in May 2021, closing his Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Cryptoland over alleged $20 million embezzlement charges.

But behind this façade, senior officers had already begun transferring millions from his digital wallet. Blockchain records show just one day after Estavi’s detention, six billion BRG tokens moved silently out of his cryptocurrency wallet.

Estavi had no formal accusers at the time of his arrest. But as news spread, over 51,000 investors filed complaints according to Iran International. Worth over $21 million, this figure was later confirmed by Iran’s Judiciary-controlled Mizan news.

Court documents cited in the report reveal Mehdi Hajipour and Mehdi Badi, senior interrogators in the IRGC’s economic branch, orchestrated the entire scheme.

Before the theft, Hajipour’s assets totaled about 10 billion rials (roughly $40,000). Four months later, his fortune had exploded to 600 billion rials, which he quickly converted to real estate, gold, and luxury vehicles.

As for Badi, he operated under the alias “Dr. Ebadi” and had appeared in numerous major IRGC economic corruption investigations.

He is the nephew of Ali Akbar Hosseini Mehrab, the former Deputy for Economic Anti-Corruption Affairs at the IRGC intelligence organization who later became governor of Khuzestan under former President Ebrahim Raisi.

But the corruption spread well beyond these two men, exposing an entire network of senior IRGC interrogators working in concert with four others who specialized in document forgery to help cover their tracks.

However, their criminal enterprise collapsed in early March when IRGC counterintelligence agents caught Hajipour accepting a $10,000 payment from Estavi.

Still in custody, the CEO believed he was buying back his stolen tokens from a third party. In reality, it was a fake identity Hajipour had created to keep milking his prey.

After his arrest, authorities sent Hajipour to Ward 66, a facility specifically for detained IRGC personnel.

According to Iran International, half of the victims received repayment from Estavi’s account while he was imprisoned. Yet about 25,000 others still await funds that disappeared into the pockets of Hajipour, Badi, and their collaborators.