A spectacular new corruption scandal has rocked Iraqi politics. The theft of $2.5 billion from the country’s national tax agency, which some are dubbing the “bank heist of the century”, has placed a glaring spotlight on Iraq’s losing battle against corruption.
1. Last month, a corruption probe by Iraq’s finance ministry revealed that $2.5 billion in taxpayer money was siphoned off from the national tax agency’s account at a state-owned bank.
2. According to media reports, the theft took place over the period of a year between September 2021 and August 2022. Fraudulent payments were made from the national tax agency to five companies, whose ownership remains obscure.
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3. News of the theft was revealed in dramatic fashion by oil minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail when he resigned as the acting finance minister. In his resignation letter, he claimed that he was being removed from office by individuals who did not want the crime to be investigated.
4. Iraq’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudhani promised to take a hard line on corruption and promised that “we will not allow the money of the Iraqis to be stolen”.
5. Corruption probes into the scandal have ensnared several top politicians, businessmen and officials. The former chairman of the parliamentary committee on finance, top CEOs and the director of the national tax authority are all suspected of involvement in siphoning of staggering sums.
6. However, a senior judicial official revealed that much of the money had been tracked. “Most of the stolen money is still inside Iraq and has been seized,” he was reported as saying.
7. Iraq has grappled with a perennial corruption crisis for decades. Scandals involving the country’s political elite are widespread and have caused significant discontent. In 2019, the country was rocked by massive citizen protests who, among other things, decried corruption in government.
8. Iraq ranked 157th out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s 2021 corruption index.
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