What's that, you want a bailout for gambling away other people's money? What we'll do instead is hear your confession then terminate your genetic line.
"The four are Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi...[the prime suspect], Behdad Behzadi, his legal advisor, Iraj Shoja, his financial solicitor and Saeed Kiani Rezazadeh, head of the Ahvaz branch of Saderat Bank," he said.
"The president of Bank Melli branch in Kish was slapped with life imprisonment and former deputy minister Khodamorad Ahmadi was sentenced to 10 years in prison," Mohseni-Ejei, who is also Iran's attorney general, added.
Other defendants were handed down sentences varying from flogging to paying cash fines and being barred from public office, he said.
Mohseni-Ejei also stated that almost none of the companies involved in this case were ordered closed by the court.
The defendants stood trial for misappropriating a total of USD2.6 billion of funds by using forged documents to obtain credit from banks to purchase state-owned companies.
According to the indictment, the owners of Aria Investment Development Company, which is at the center of the controversy, had bribed bank managers to get loans and letters of credit. The company has more than 35 offshoots which are active in diverse business activities.
It would be fantastic to hang those responsible for the financial catastrophe brought upon the Western world. Hanging is a little tame. Perhaps the good old British drawn and quartered might be more appropriate and their assets distributed to their victims, the poor. I volunteer to do the drawing -for free!