The amounts reached 8 billion dollars.. “Theft of the Century” in Iraq returns to the forefront again

The issue of the theft of tax deposits, referred to by the media as “theft of the century” in Iraq, returned once again to the fore following a statement from the Integrity Commission, pointing to the doubling of percentages for stolen money, with the simultaneous increase in the number of people accused of this crime to more than 30 accused and convicted.
The head of the Integrity Commission, Judge Haider Hanoun, revealed new details, showing that the Commission had managed to recover some of the accused owners of companies involved in the theft. These include Qasim Muhammad, who held the position of Managing Director of the “Humpbacked Whale” company, who was arrested in the Kurdistan Region, where the recorded thefts in his name amounted to 988 billion dinars, about 7 million dollars, indicating that these are not final figures.

While Hanoun confirmed that the Prime Minister follows up on the issue of the tax deposits daily during a press conference at the end of last week, he asked the Director of the Tax Authority to disclose the amount of stolen funds within 15 days, noting that the Integrity Commission does not know the total amount stolen.

However, observers confirmed that the amounts stolen in the same case amounted to more than 8 billion dollars distributed among all of the convicted and accused, after the announcement for the first time that the stolen amounts equaled 2.5 billion dollars.

It is believed that the amount of money embezzled in the tax deposits’ case has reached nearly 8 billion, according to anti-corruption activist and former member of the government’s anti-corruption committee, Saeed Yassin Musa, meaning that there is information that cannot be disclosed at this point in time due to its impact on the course of investigations and tracking of the movement of wanted persons and funds, especially after the doubling of the amount of stolen funds.

The theft of the century was announced during the government of former Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi in 2022, where the alliance formed by 5 fake companies had been involved since 2022 in the stealing and withdrawal of an amount of 3 trillion and 750 billion Iraqi dinars, approximately equivalent to 2.5 billion dollars, of funds deposited by great oil companies in their tax accounts using fake papers and checks.

Not first
According to the former head of the Integrity Commission, Judge Musa Faraj, “theft of the century”, despite its enormity, neither will be the first nor the last, while the importance springs from the fact that it is a model case of mafia corruption and should be adopted as a “case study” of the nature of corruption in the country since most of the corruptive elements are found therein.

Faraj adds that this corrupt environment and contribution of legislative and executive parties at the very top denote an extreme form of myopia, for they deal with the problems of the country from a narrow personal point of view, especially after they launched a senseless campaign to abolish the offices of the Inspectors General in the ministries representing the country’s first line of defense against corruption.

He said that political parties in domination of the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers and the Office of Prime Minister, since the era of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, worked desperately to get rid of competencies by replacing them with those party loyalists who deal with corruption issues in a superficial or selective way.

Faraj demanded that investigations be expanded to include all those colluding or paving the way for the thieves—beginning from the head of the Finance Committee in the House of Representatives, going through the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, and general managers—everybody having any direct and indirect relationship—and not just restricting it to the direct thieves themselves.

He said that the numbers surrounding “the theft of the century” were higher than what was announced earlier and far more than that, taking into account that the executive authority represented by the Ministry of Finance was not very willing to make accurate disclosures regarding the amount stolen. The lack of accuracy in determining this amount precludes the courts from continuing with litigation procedures, which prompted the Integrity Commission’s chief to ask that the Minister of Finance and the Tax Authority accurately determine the amount stolen within 15 days.

Main Suspects
The head of the Integrity Commission declared that the first accused, Mohammed Falah Al-Janabi, the managing director of the “Al-Qant” company, had been arrested and accused previously of embezzling one trillion and 85 billion dinars, which is equivalent to approximately 7 million dollars, through 79 forged checks, in addition to arresting the third accused in crimes related to the stealing of tax deposits in the Emirates, which will be recovered soon.

Hanoun explained that the fourth accused is Alaa Khalaf Maran, who is a fugitive outside the country and at the time was affiliated with the office of Al-Kadhimi. The latter is accused with Hussein Kawa, a managing director of one of the companies accused of stealing and still detained in the custody of Erbil. He said the judge was working on his extradition with the Kurdistan Region, similar to another suspect detained and accused of stealing 624 billion dinars through 37 checks.

He said the number of accused was more than thirty, with recoveries in excess of two million dollars and 155 million Iraqi dinars. He reiterated that the first accused, Nour Zuhair, is outside prison on bail, thus pointing to the “case of the theft of the century, which will not die no matter how much the corrupt hide it from the eyes of the oversight agencies and the people.”.

Ongoing investigations:
According to Mohammed Rahim Al-Rubaie, the head of the Nahrain Foundation for Supporting Transparency and Integrity, investigations into the case of stealing tax deposits are still underway at the Supreme Judicial Council, the Federal Integrity Commission, the Investigation Team, and groups from the Financial Supervision Bureau. He explained that all have concluded the involvement of some other persons accused in the case and that the crime is also considered continuous so long as the amount is not fully recovered.

Al-Rubaie said that the number of the defendants will continue to increase till the case reaches its completely ending, stressing that the procedures of Integrity Commission are realistic, deterrent, and comprehensive to extradite all those convicted and accused in this case, in addition to recovering the remaining funds.

The case of the theft of the century was first exposed in October 2022, involving former senior officials and businessmen; an event which had inflamed huge anger in the country that had seen massive protests since recent years over ending corruption.

The Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, stated on the 14th of last July that the case of tax deposit theft is still a black spot in the state’s history, which shows it was performed under the cover of some officials, and declared half of its funds smuggled abroad.