Four to die in Iran over US$2b fraud case

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Iran's state prosecutor says the country's Supreme Court has upheld death sentences against four people linked to a US$2.6 billion (NZ$3.06b) bank fraud described as the biggest financial swindle in Iran's history.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei says the four were convicted of being "corrupt on earth" for "disrupting" the country's economy. He says the court has ordered the verdict to be carried out but no date has been set.

Ejehei is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that two banking officials have been sentenced to life in prison while 19 others, almost all of them senior government officials, were given prison terms ranging from two to 20 years.

Their trial last year raised questions about corruption at senior levels in Iran's tightly controlled economy.

- AP