Scandal over transfer of municipal properties In September 2016,
Shargh newspaper reported on the transfer of municipal properties to certain city managers at heavily discounted prices. Following this, the
Memari News website published a letter from the
Islamic Inspectorate Organization of the country, revealing the names and details of the discounts offered to dozens of individuals and several cooperatives by the municipality. As a result of this report, the editor of the
Memari News website was imprisoned after being sued by Ghalibaf and
Mehdi Chamran. The allegations published in the report highlighted the transfer and sale of properties and lands—intended for residential, commercial, administrative, and service use—that belonged to the public property of the Tehran Municipality. These properties, totaling more than 100,000 square meters, were sold to managers, deputies, council members, and several individuals at discounted prices, which was considered a violation. The report emphasized that applying 50% discounts on expert valuations, as well as unrealistic property assessments for individuals outside the municipality, led to a waste of public resources. The average price per square meter of these properties was estimated at two million
Iranian tomans, resulting in a loss of over 2,200 billion tomans of public property from the Tehran Municipality. Former Tehran mayor
Mohammad-Ali Najafi announced the transfer of some lands in the
Abbas Abad district of Tehran to a military institution, explaining that since the contract had already been signed, the transfer could not be legally blocked. He stated that more than 670 municipal properties had been transferred to individuals and institutions, often at their discretion. Najafi, who was summarizing the investigation report on the performance of his predecessor--Ghalibaf, said that he would report some confidential matters separately to the city council members. Ghalibaf had previously been accused by city council members of financial corruption during his tenure. In the course of exposing certain violations during Ghalibaf's administration, journalist and Ghalibaf critic
Yashar Soltani was imprisoned. Later, the
Attorney General of Iran confirmed that 45 individuals had received properties from the municipality "outside the legal framework," though he said that there was no evidence of organized corruption. Mirlohi also stated that, in addition to former Tehran municipality officials, some former members of the city council were involved in the transfer of these astronomical properties. In the interview with Etemad, he further noted that the astronomical properties case has effectively "disappeared" within the judiciary.
Accused of concluding fictitious contract for use in election advertising On 15 January 2017, Mohammad Ali Najafi stated: "Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran and a candidate in the 12th presidential election, signed two contracts worth a total of 1.43 billion tomans ($366,000, based on the dollar exchange rate of 3,900 tomans in 2017). Upon further investigation, we found that while this amount was indeed deposited into the account of the aforementioned company, only 173 million tomans were given to the company. The rest of the funds were deposited into another account belonging to the head of the office of one of the former deputy mayors, and this money was later used for election purposes. Meanwhile, the individual listed on the account at the company affiliated with the police admitted in writing that out of the 173 million tomans, only 20 million belonged to him, while the rest was distributed among others.
Paying bribe of 65 billion tomans to prevent investigation On 16 March 2016, some members of parliament initiated a plan to investigate the Tehran Municipality, but they ultimately failed to secure the necessary votes. Ghalibaf then thanked the parliamentarians for rejecting the investigation. On 20 July 2020,
Mostafa Mir-Salim, a member of parliament from Tehran, revealed that an investigation was planned in 2016 to examine the performance of the Tehran Municipality during Ghalibaf’s tenure as mayor. However, the investigation was halted due to a vote of opposition from parliament members. Mirsalim claimed that a bribe of 65 billion tomans was used to stop the investigation. Before this, Mirsalim had stated that the bribe had been paid to the head of a parliamentary commission. He had submitted documents related to the 65 billion tomans bribe to the judiciary.
Issa Sharifi case Throughout Ghalibaf's 12-year tenure as mayor, Issa Sharifi was one of his closest associates, serving as his deputy mayor for 10 years. He also stepped in as acting mayor of Tehran twice when Ghalibaf ran for president.
Plasco Building fire On the morning of Friday, 20 January 2017, a massive fire broke out at the
Plasco Building, located at Istanbul Crossroads in central Tehran, which ultimately led to its complete collapse. The fire spread quickly, and firefighters attempted to contain it, but 20 of them lost their lives in the process. Following the incident, the Tehran Municipality, under Ghalibaf's leadership, faced accusations of negligence. Among the widespread criticisms were claims of "inability to manage the crisis," "failure to allocate sufficient budget to the fire department," "issuing only one warning to the Plasco building," and "focusing on removing superficial debris rather than searching for survivors." In response to this, Tehran City Councilman
Mohsen Sorkhou described the city's crisis management as "zero." On 13 February, Ghalibaf presented a report on the incident during an open session of the
Parliament of Iran, defending the municipality's actions. He stated: "The fire brigade arrived at the Plasco building in less than two and a half minutes after the fire was reported. We had no equipment issues, and the facilities were adequate." However, his statement was interrupted by
Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh, a representative from
Rasht, who accused Ghalibaf of lying about the fire brigade's response time.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli also provided a different account after the Plasco disaster, stating: "The fire brigade arrived five minutes after the fire started, left due to a lack of equipment, and returned 15 minutes later." In the days following the incident, numerous reports from eyewitnesses, fire officers, and experts highlighted deficiencies and equipment failures, revealing the inaccuracies in Ghalibaf's statements. Ghalibaf's meeting on 7 February at the Tehran City Council to review the Plasco incident was met with strong criticism from council members. During the meeting, he apologized to the public for his "inefficiency in crisis management" and emphasized that it was the responsibility of the judiciary to judge and adjudicate the Plasco incident. • Withdrew 1.25 billion tomans for the elections through the signing of two contracts. • Invested the assets of the municipal employees' reserve fund in a corrupt project. • Increased
land subsidence caused by excessive extraction of water from Tehran’s wells. • The municipality's debt of approximately 50 trillion tomans, which was three times the then-current budget. • Hired 13,000 people ahead of the presidential elections. ==Speaker of the Parliament==