Iran has executed Mohammad Reza Ghaffari, the ringleader of a massive investment scam that defrauded tens of thousands of citizens through a car-buying network, AFP reported.
The judiciary’s Mizan Online reported that Ghaffari, owner of the Rezaayat Khodro Taravat Novin company, was hanged after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for “large-scale disruption of the country’s economic system” and network fraud.
The scheme, launched in 2013 in Qazvin province, promised cars at below-market prices and later expanded into real estate and investment ventures. Prosecutors said Ghaffari and his associates took “vast sums from the public,” using new deposits to pay returns to earlier clients.
According to the judiciary, the fraud involved sums equivalent to $350 million. Only “around 4%” of customers ever received a vehicle. The case drew more than 28,000 complainants and implicated 28 defendants.
Mizan noted that “all necessary opportunities were given to the defendants to pay the people’s debts.” Ghaffari had claimed during trial he was ready to reimburse investors, which would have spared him execution. However, despite “several warnings and deadlines” after the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence in August, he failed to settle his obligations.
Judicial officials said the scam inflicted “severe financial and psychological harm” on victims, including stress-related illnesses and family breakdowns.
Iran enforces the death penalty not only for murder and rape but also for major economic and espionage crimes. Rights groups rank Iran as the world’s second most prolific user of capital punishment after China.
In August, the UN Human Rights Office reported that Iranian authorities executed at least 841 people from the beginning of 2025 until August 28, despite repeated international appeals to halt the use of capital punishment.
In July alone, according to the data, Iran carried out 110 executions - more than double the number recorded in the same month last year.