Senior Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Dehqan says the recent widespread financial corruption and the biggest embezzlement in the county�s �banking history has taken place with the support of a powerful faction in the government.

Expressing gratitude for the firm reaction of Iran's Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeqi Amoli Larijani and Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei with regards to this issue, Dehqan said the Judiciary must explain to Iranian people the role of culprits affiliated with the Deviant current.

On July 30, Mohseni-Ejei said four of 39 defendants have been sentenced to death and two others to life imprisonment, and the remaining defendants received prison terms of 25 years, 20 years, 10 years, and less.

The member of Majlis Presiding Board said a number of suspects in the banking scam case were at large and the Judiciary must deal with them without leniency.�Referring to the fact that the sentences have not been reviewed in the appeal court, Dehqan warned that Iran's Judiciary must not allow the verdicts to be reduced.

The defendants were charged with misappropriating a total of USD 2.6 billion of funds by using forged documents to obtain credit from banks to purchase state-owned companies. Seven state-owned and private Iranian banks are said to be involved in the embezzlement case.