The Dutch company Spar International has revoked the license for Spar stores in Iran. According to de Volkskrant, the Iranian Spar was allegedly used to circumvent sanctions against the Iranian regime in recent years.
The Austrian company Blue River, comprising an Iranian couple on its advisory board, applied for a Spar store license in Iran in 2017. They received it, and the first four stores opened in Tehran in 2020.
At that time, strict sanctions were imposed on Iran by Europe. Iranian banks were excluded from the international payment system, and a long list of individuals were barred from entering Europe.
Trade with organizations linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was prohibited, except for medicine and food. As a food company, Spar could potentially bypass these sanctions.
A whistleblower who worked for the company claims that under the Spar license, equipment such as video phones, storage devices, and servers, unnecessary for a small supermarket chain, was acquired through Austria. Additionally, family members of sanctioned individuals traveled to Europe under the Spar license.
A daughter of a police official first visited Austria and then traveled further into Europe, allegedly without any business connection to Spar. Blue River, responsible for securing the visas, disputes this.
Blue River also introduced a payment system, Spar-pay, allowing people outside Iran to purchase credits for Spar stores in Iran online. The company later attempted to use this system for transferring cash into the country by making the vouchers redeemable at banks, which reportedly was unsuccessful.
The whistleblower reported the irregularities to Spar International’s management in October 2023. The documents supporting these allegations were reviewed by de Volkskrant.
Months later, Spar International initially saw no grounds for investigation. However, following inquiries from de Volkskrant, the company decided last week to revoke the Iran license.
An investigation, reportedly initiated in December 2023, identified “possible irregularities” and “several violations of the license agreement.”
Source: NOS