Shafaq News- Babil
Iraq’s Federal(CoI) arrested nine suspects on Tuesday over an alleged scheme to conceal ownership of more than 170 properties in Babil and Baghdad worth tens of billions of dinars.
The Commission said the group was led by the director of the Abu Gharaq Real Estate Registration Office and allegedly registered properties in the names of relatives, friends and other people to conceal their true ownership and the source of the funds.
Investigators from the Commission’s Babil office, working with the Falcons Intelligence Cell, uncovered the network after an inquiry into the property transactions.
The Commission said the main suspect had previously headed real estate registration offices in Al-Mansour and Babil. Some of the properties under investigation include state-owned and agricultural land.
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Investigators also recovered records the suspects allegedly tried to hide or destroy. Some documents were found inside a bag hidden among grass, while witnesses said others had been thrown into Shatt al-Hilla. Investigators later recovered documents from the riverbank and pulled others from the water.
Witnesses also provided information on how the properties were purchased and registered and whose names were used, according to the Commission.
Investigators found that the main suspect owned two commercial buildings in central Hilla in addition to other properties under investigation.