Iraq's Integrity Commission executes arrest warrant for embezzlement

Shafaq News/ On Saturday, the Federal Integrity Commission announced the execution of an arrest warrant against the director of the International Development Bank - Maysan Branch on charges of embezzling billions of dinars from the bank.

The Commission's Media Office revealed that the director, in collaboration with a trusted employee and the assistant director of the bank, as well as two employees acting as "cashiers" at the branch, "misappropriated an amount of 6,771,010,000 Iraqi dinars by withdrawing them from the cashier's safe and handed over to unknown individuals."

Article 315 of the Iraqi Penal Code in force stipulates the following: "Any employee or person entrusted with public service who embezzles, conceals, or hides money, property, a document, or anything else found in their possession shall be punished with imprisonment."

Corruption in Iraq is endemic and has corroded state institutions, sanctioned by a political class that has governed the country since former president Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. The ethno-sectarian arrangement intended to foster power-sharing has instead entrenched a system of horse-trading between factions competing for top government jobs and sources of patronage within ministries.

On Thursday, nearly $9 billion has gone missing from Diyala.

Sources told Shafaq News Agency that the theft was reportedly carried out over eight months, with the most recent withdrawal of 3 billion dinars (approximately $2.5 million) taking place just days ago."

The theft was discovered during an audit of the governorate's accounts."

The theft is reminiscent of the infamous "theft of the century," in which $2.5bn was allegedly spirited away from the country's tax authority between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 cheques that five companies cashed.

The money was then withdrawn in cash from these companies' accounts; most owners are on the run.

According to the ministry, the companies claimed to be acting on behalf of bigger firms, including several international oil companies. Four people with knowledge of the investigation said three of the companies were founded in the month before the scheme began.

The ministry said 3.7tn Iraqi dinars ($2.5bn) were withdrawn from the accounts at Rafidain — or around 2.81 percent of the country's 2021 budget. Some of the cash was then used to buy US currency through the daily "dollar auction" — a process in which the central bank provides dollars to a commercial bank in exchange for Iraqi dinars.

The scandal broke days before new premier Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani's government was sworn in, and he said his administration would prioritize fighting corruption, which had "so brazenly spread through the joints of the state and its institutions."

He has begun publicly purging acolytes of the former prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.