Vahid Alaghband

Vahid Alaghband   (businessman, financier, commodities trader)
Born	وحید علاقبند 20 March 1952 Tehran, Iran
Alma mater	Cornell University
Siblings	Nasser Alaghband
Founder of	Balli Group Plc
Interests	Clinton Global Initiative.
British-Iranian commodities trader who several times has faced charges of fraudulent trading and conspiracy to defraud. Member of the pay-to-play Clinton Global Initiative.

Vahid Alaghband is a British-Iranian international commodities trader and entrepreneur based in London. He was a member of the pay-to-play Clinton Global Initiative.

Education

In 1969, Alaghband was sent to boarding schools in Switzerland and near Boston in the United States. In 1975, he graduated from Cornell University with a degree in process engineering and returned to Iran.

In 1979, his family lost almost all their assets during the Iranian Revolution and fled to London.

Commodities trading

In 1981, with a starting capital of $ 200,000 borrowed from relatives, Alaghband founded the metal trading company Balli Group Plc. In the first year he achieved a turnover of $ 6 million, in 2001 already 4 billion euros. His brother Hassan joined the Balli Group in 1990 after working as a lawyer and auditor at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in the USA. In 2008 the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his personal fortune at £130 million.

Legal misunderstanding

In January 2003, he was arrested in on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and extradited from Switzerland to Germany facing charges for embezzlement. The case stems from the takeover in 2001 by Balli of a 95% stake in German steel maker Klöckner. About €120m is alleged to have gone missing from Klockner since that deal, but Alaghband's legal team argues this was "just a misunderstanding". He was released after 11 months without charge.

2010 Iran trading

In 2010 Balli Aviation Ltd., a subsidiary of the UK-based Balli Group PLC, pleaded guilty in Washington D.C. district court to a two-count criminal indictment that it "illegally" (in breach of US sanctions) exported a commercial Boeing 747 plane from the U.S. to Iran. Under the plea agreement, Balli Aviation Ltd. agreed to pay a $2 million criminal fine, a $15 million civil settlement, and to be placed on corporate probation for five years. The relatively light punishment could possibly be connected to Vahid being a donor to the pay-to-play Clinton Global Initiative.

Fraud trial

In February 2023, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) secured the convictions of two executives of the British steel trading business Balli Steel plc, the main trading entity within Balli Group plc, on six counts of fraud. Balli Steel plc bought and sold steel around the world using short-term loans from trade finance banks to fund its deals. SFO investigators exposed how two of the defendants, namely executives Melis Erda and Louise Worsell, conspired to deceive trade finance banks by providing misleading information, false shipping documents and forged signatures on fake sales contracts.

Vahid Alaghband faced charges of two counts of fraudulent trading and one count of conspiracy to defraud, but was severed from this trial in November 2022. His brother, Nasser Alaghband, former director of Balli Group and the CEO of Balli Steel plc, pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading prior to the trial.

Other

He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a trustee of Asia House London and an International Council Member of Asia Society New York.

Vahid Alaghband was formerly Chair of The Iran Heritage Foundation, a non-political UK registered charity with the mission to promote and preserve the history, languages and cultures of Iran and the Persian world.

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