Iran Gets an Unlikely Visitor, an American Plane, but No One Seems to Know Why

NY Times ^ | April 17, 2014 |  MICHAEL CORKERY, JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and THOMAS ERDBRINK

[opentalk]

President Obama has warned that Iran is not open for business, even as the United States has loosened some of its punishing economic sanctions as part of an interim nuclear pact.

Yet on Tuesday morning, Iran had an unlikely visitor: a plane, owned by the Bank of Utah, a community bank in Ogden that has 13 branches throughout the state. Bearing a small American flag on its tail, the aircraft was parked in a highly visible section of Mehrabad Airport in Tehran

But from there, the story surrounding the plane, and why it was in Iran — where all but a few United States and European business activities are prohibited — grows more mysterious

[piasa]

Ghana politician’s plane... reminds me if this:

From Zerohedge :

“As South China Morning Post reports, police were last night making arrangements with a mainland businessman to check whether HK$270 million of gold bullion he bought in Africa was genuine after part of the consignment was swapped with metal bars.

On Wednesday, Zhao Jingjun, 43, opened part of his shipment in front of his buyer in Hong Kong and discovered the gold had been switched for worthless metal.

A senior officer said it would be the city’s biggest heist in a decade if it was confirmed that all the gold had been stolen.

An initial inquiry showed Zhao purchased 998kg of gold bars from a company in Ghana in mid-April [2014], police said. “

The consignment, in 14 cases, was escorted by his staff and delivered from Ghana on a chartered flight late last month.[may 2014]