Marjan Sheikholeslami Aleagha

Marjan Sheikholeslami Aleagha is a former journalist, political activist, businesswoman and fugitive embezzler. She is married to Mehdi Khalaji, an advocate of economic sanctions against Iran. Marjan Aleagha is known for embezzling $7.4 billion in one of her cases.

Media activities She started as a journalist in reformist newspapers in late 1990s, including covering the parliament at Hambastegi newspaper. Later in mid 2000s she directed a news agency linked to Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Iran, which was headed by Hamid Baghaei, a Vice President and confidant to President Ahmadinejad.

Political involvement As a member of the main reformist party, Islamic Iran Participation Front, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in Tehran in 1996 Iranian legislative election. In 2008, she switched sides and was endorsed by allies of the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the 2008 Iranian legislative election to no avail.

In 2014, she cofounded Idea Center for Arts and Culture LLC with her husband Mehdi Khalaji and published a web magazine, Ghalamro. The company was dissolved in 2017.

Corruption charges In two separate cases, she is accused of embezzling public funds in Iran. In 2010, as the international sanctions against Iran intensified, she founded various companies in Iran and Turkey to help Iran bypass the sanctions and sell its petrochemical products. In March 2019, Marjan Sheikholeslami Aleagha was formally accused of being involved in a giant embezzlement court case of a value of 6.6 billion EU of the assets of Iran National Petrochemical Company while attempting to bypass Iran sanctions. Marjan Sheikholeslami Aleagha fled Iran in and took asylum in Canada.

According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Sheikholeslami is accused of working closely with Reza Hamzehlou, the then CEO of Iran's Petrochemical Commercial Company which was just privatised by Ahmadinejad's government, to embezzle €6.6b of petrochemical exports under the sanctions. The case is described by Shargh newspaper as the biggest corruption case in Iranian history. She is charged with €7,065,529 in one case and $8,710,384 embezzlement in another by an ongoing trial in Tehran.

In another case, Sheikholeslami is accused of receiving funds from Sepanir Oil and Gas Energy Engineering Company, which is owned by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to import goods which she never delivered and escaped Iran to Canada. The amount is not disclosed yet. This contradiction has attracted a lot of attention in Persian language media, describing the couple as 'one makes sanctions and the other, bypasses them."