Tehran; October 2026: On Sunday Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned following an Intelligence Report that Sadeghi, a senior adviser to the Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief, and his son were at the centre of efforts to shift the mechanism for transferring sanctioned oil revenues from the UAE to Russia. Iran’s Central Bank had found an alternative route to repatriate money held by oil intermediaries trusted by the Islamic Republic, known as “trustees”, and transferred $1.5 billion in Iranian oil revenues through Russia’s banking system.
Hours after the report, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad have resigned and President Masoud Pezeshkian accepted his resignation. Paknejad’s removal and the change in the money-transfer route were part of an effort to preserve the IRGC Intelligence Organisation’s oil-sales corruption network. As per the cited intelligence report it was senior IRGC commander Hossein-Reza Sadeghi and his son Saeed played central roles in efforts to preserve an IRGC Intelligence oil-sales network and shift its financial operations from the United Arab Emirates to Russia.
Although Saeed Sadeghi currently holds no official Oil Ministry position, he has for years been a trusted Revolutionary Guards figure in Iran’s oil industry. It was during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, he became chief executive of Amir Kabir Petrochemical Company. He previously served as deputy for legal affairs and contracts at the oil, gas and petrochemical holding company of the Guards’ Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters and at Shastan Investment Holding, which is affiliated with the Defense Ministry.
Two months after Pezeshkian took office, Sadeghi was appointed chief executive of Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO). In September 2025, he was removed just one week after being appointed director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company. His removal came after it emerged that trustees had failed to return $8 billion in proceeds from oil sales to Iran.
After anti-government protests broke out in January, several establishment figures said economic pressure stemming from corruption among the trustees had caused the unrest.
Mehdi Kharatian, director of the Hayat-e Siasat think tank and an analyst close to the Islamic Republic, compared “the trustees’ failure to return the dollars” to “the pager operation in Iran” during a video podcast.
As per the intelligence report - Sadeghi had travelled to Moscow at his father’s request a week before the start of the 40-day war, apparently to avoid possible judicial proceedings. He remained in Russia until the war ended and worked on moving the financial network used to handle proceeds from sanctioned Iranian oil sales from the UAE to Russia, the sources said.
It was on June 6 this year (2026), Mohammad Javad Bavand, a former deputy head of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation’s economic affairs division, was appointed the oil minister’s special assistant for sales. Bavand had held the same position under Raisi and previously represented IRGC Intelligence on the Supreme National Security Council committee tasked with circumventing sanctions.
On June 17th, Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati visited Mir Business Bank in Moscow alongside Iran’s ambassador to Russia. Bank Melli Iran owns all shares in the bank, which is registered in Moscow and has operated since 2002. Mir Business Bank provides correspondent accounts and services for ruble and foreign-currency transactions, connecting Iranian banks with Russia’s banking network.
The US Treasury sanctioned the bank in 2018 for providing financial services to sanctioned Iranian entities. The proceeds from oil sold by the trustees are to be returned to Iran through Russia’s Mir financial network, which they said replaced SWIFT following US banking sanctions. IRGC Brigadier General Hossein-Reza Sadeghi was tasked with completing the IRGC Intelligence Organisation’s network for selling Iranian oil.
Sadeghi has held senior oversight positions within the Revolutionary Guards, including heading the office responsible for special oversight of IRGC Intelligence on behalf of the Guards commander-in-chief. He has also served as deputy coordinator of the IRGC Intelligence Protection Organisation. Establishment of the IRGC trustee network was approved by Mehdi Sayyari, the new acting head of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation. At the same time, a separate network of oil intermediaries linked to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, known as Shayan, came under scrutiny by the ministry’s internal security unit. Shayan, the ministry’s director-general for fuel and energy, was subsequently removed from his post.
One week later, nine trustees in the network, including children of senior security figures, among them Ali Rezaei, son of Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei. Members of the network have collectively failed to return $11 billion in proceeds from Iranian oil sales, as per the intelligence report.
IRGC commander Abdollah Zeighami, also known as Moshfegh and deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards’ media headquarters, held a confidential meeting with Bavand and Mostafa Ahadi, a former deputy for economic affairs at IRGC Intelligence who now serves as deputy head of Unit 600 of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation. The meeting focused on suppressing reporting about corruption involving IRGC-linked oil trustees. On Sunday (04th October 2026) the transfer of $1.5 billion in oil proceeds from Russia to Iran marked the completion of the Revolutionary Guards’ project. Hours after the Oil Minister had tendered his resignation.
It is mention worthy that Paknejad had himself played a central role in establishing oil-sales corruption networks involving two of the Islamic Republic’s security agencies. He was removed after the new IRGC Intelligence network had been completed, while all the trustees remained free.
Team Maverick.
