The Fatemi Circle ( fa, حلقه فاطمی) is a nickname given to a

clique A clique ( AusE, CanE, or ), in the social sciences, is a group of individuals who interact with one another and share similar interests. Interacting with cliques is part of normative social development regardless of gender, ethnicity, or popular ...

of statesmen within the Government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reported to have been involved in numerous corruption scandals in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The clique became publicly known in April 2010, when Elyas Naderan, a

Majlis ( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...

member stated " Mr. Rahimi is the head of the corruption circle in Fatemi Street who made decisions about collecting resources from corrupt sources and about their distribution, and now almost all members of this economically corrupt network in Fatemi Street have been arrested except the current First Vice President of Iran." The claim was backed by

Ahmad Tavakkoli Ahmad Tavakkoli (; born 5 March 1951) is an Iranian conservative and principlist politician, journalist. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council. Also he is currently managing-director of ''Alef'' news website and founder of t ...

and

Ali Motahari Ali Motahhari ( fa, علی مطهری; born 26 January 1958) is an Iranian politician who is known as a conservative and is also named as a sort of conservative reformist, who represented Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr electoral district ...

. According to the

Chief Justice of Iran The Chief Justice of Iran is the head of the Judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Head of Judiciary) and is responsible for its administration and supervision. The head of the judiciary of Iran is required to be an "honorable man" acc ...

, "The members of this gang were able to deprive citizens and the treasury of billions of tomans through

forging Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...

administrative and judicial documents. One of them alone was reported to have embezzled 6 billion tomans ( $6 million USD)."

Iran Insurance case

The Fatemi Circle is said to be responsible for an embezzlement scandal that occurred within the state-owned Iran Insurance company. In 2013, the names of 12 people convicted in the case was announced: Mostafa Hamzeh-Nosi, Davoud Fahimi-Roudposhti, Badiollah Kiani, Jaber Abdali, Mohammad-Taghi Tavakkoli, Ali Jalil, Shahriar Khosravi, Mahmoud Bagheri, Iraj Abdolhamidi, Fariborz Farid-Danesh, Davoud Sarkhosh-Shahri and Yousef-Ali Darounparvar.

References

{{Portal bar, Iran Organizations established in 2005 2005 establishments in Iran Organized crime groups in Iran Corruption in Iran