DOCUMENTSPDF: Read Masoud Bajastani divorce ruling
The head of America’s biggest nuclear power plant construction project was fired last week after he lied about having a financial hardship in order to get $1.8 million from a future TVA bonus fund, according to court records.
Masoud Bajestani, formerly one of TVA’s top nuclear managers who was overseeing the construction of the Unit 2 reactor, admitted in a divorce proceeding that he made early hardship withdrawals from his deferred compensation account because he wanted to invest money in his native Iran.
An appellate court ruled last year that Bajestani falsely claimed to need the money for housing when he actually sent $600,000 to his brother-in-law in Iran. The transfers were made through a Canadian bank around the time that Bajestani’s second wife, Maryam Ghorashi-Bajestani, sued him for divorce.
“(Bajestani) did not need the money,” Tennessee Court of Appeals Judge D. Michael Swiney ruled in a 31-page divorce ruling last year. “At trial, he admitted that he did not have a financial hardship at the time he made the withdrawal.”