Iranian security authorities arrested the director of financial affairs of the Iranian Ministry of Oil during his flight from the country with $ 25 million from the account of the ministry, according to the agency “Tasnim” close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

The official, who did not reveal his name, had deposited the amount in the account of a cashier for financial activities and then intended to leave the country.

According to the report, the official was working to spend the amount with him in cooperation with the cashier, although not allowed to withdraw the amount of the currency legally and move it out of the country.

The agency confirmed that the financial director of the Iranian Ministry of Oil was arrested at an airport before leaving the country on Wednesday morning and was ordered to arrest him.

The authorities also arrested the cashier and the two were transferred to prison, and the account where the funds were deposited was closed, the report said.

The Oil Ministry is one of the biggest economic and financial corruption strongholds in Iran, where dozens of officials are charged with embezzlement, theft and bribery.

Last December, Iran executed a trader convicted on charges of fraud and large-scale smuggling of oil products, named Hamid Reza Baqeri Darmani, as part of a crackdown on corruption last summer aimed at controlling oil smuggling under US sanctions.

The billionaire Babak Zanjani, who was an oil broker on the black market, is being tried for embezzlement and bribery, earning at least $ 3 billion in profits. He was arrested, sentenced to death and still in prison.

Iran has been circumventing international sanctions (from 2011 to 2016) through schemes to smuggle its oil to dubious foreign buyers.

During these operations, billions of dollars have been embezzled by intermediaries, but Iranian officials have repeatedly declared that the administration of US President Donald Trump has dismantled all networks of fraud, circumvention and transgression of sanctions since 2016.