Iran: MP Warns Against Counterfeit Foreign Bills
The head of the economic commission of Iran’s Parliament announced on Saturday that “five billion dollars in fake bills” was being distributed among the public.
ISNA reports that Arsalan Fathipour told the Parliament that, unfortunately, the fake bills are being distributed all across the country and the public must remain on alert.
No further details were provided by the lawmaker regarding the source of the counterfeit money nor the method used for their distribution.
In the past months, the rial has fallen to an unprecedented low against foreign currencies, and a high public demand for dollars has made the rial tumble even further by the day.
The Ahmadinejad administration has been blamed for the economic downturn, and more than 100 MPs have signed a motion to impeach the president for failing to remedy the situation.
Avaz Heydarpour, an Iranian MP, recently told the Tejarat-e Farda weekly that the Central Bank has used five brokers to secretly sell $130 million to $150 million on the open market, which the arrested brokers have confessed.
While most money traders had stopped announcing the rate of exchange for the dollar and suspended all sales, the Fars News Agency reported today that exchange bureaus are now announcing a rate of exchange of 32,600 to 32,900 rials for the dollar, which is at least 20,000 rials more than the rates at the same time last year.
