Iran busts biggest UK-linked financial sabotage, online gambling network

Iran's Intelligence Ministry has managed to bust the biggest organized online network of gambling and betting across the country that had been established and directed by UK-based elements.

The ministry made the announcement in a statement on Saturday, saying the development came by following 14 months of "complicated intelligence research and surveillance."

The network had managed to swindle hefty sums, using as many as 35,006 bank accounts, 1,200 payment gateways, and 54 big gambling and betting websites.

The "London-based mafia network" would deposit part of the sums that it would receive from gamblers to their accounts as "gambling gains," but transfer big sums of their money to the UK.

The ministry noted that the UK government would close its eyes on the mafia network's money laundering and other illegal operations in exchange for levying heavy taxes on their gains. London would, therefore, "practically pave the way for the culprits' criminal activities," it said in the statement.

The ministry's operatives also arrested five managers running the "Nitro bet" network and the "Pardakht.me" payment gateway on charges of economic sabotage, running online gambling houses, and obtaining ill-gotten gains.

The UK-based network's activities were not confined to fraudulent conduct, the ministry said, adding that it was, meanwhile, pursuing normalization through various media outlets of the practice of gambling, which is forbidden in line with Islamic teachings.

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