Shafaq News/ Iraq's judiciary has issued arrest warrants against officials in former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi's cabinet over connections to the mega-tax fraud domestically dubbed as the "theft of the century", the Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the chairperson of the council, Judge Faiq Zeidan, convened a meeting with the head of the federal commission of Integrity, Judge Haidar Hanoun, and the magistrates in charge of Integrity courts in al-Rusafa and al-Karkh, Judges Eyad Muhsen Damad and Diyaa Jaafar, in addition to the head of the higher anti-corruption commission's support team Abdul-Karim Abd Fadhel al-Basri.
The judges, according to the readout, studied proposals to address the injustice that might disadvantage the state in the contracts it concluded with other parties and the legal courses to recover funds obtained via criminal financial activities.
Judge Diyaa Jaafar presented a briefing the updates on the second court of Al-Karkh's efforts to recover the funds stolen during the theft of the century, shedding light on new suspects, some of whom were officials in al-Kadhimi's former government, who are purportedly involved in the case.
The scandal was brought to public attention in early October by Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, then the acting finance minister under Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who was forced to resign from that role in the face of parliamentary opposition to his appointment shortly afterward.
Ismail had been appointed in August after his predecessor, Ali Allawi, publicly resigned by reading out a letter in a cabinet meeting in which he complained that "extensive secret networks" had been able to "withdraw billions of dollars from the public treasury".
In the embezzlement, an amount of 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars (almost $2.5 billion) was fraudulently paid to five companies by the General Commission of Taxes. The money was paid through 247 cheques between September 9, 2021, and August 11, 2022, from the commission's account at the state-run Rafidain Bank.
According to the findings of an internal investigation conducted by the ministry, the companies —at least three of them established last year— submitted fake documents for their claims.
Those funds were deposited by trading companies and individuals as a guarantee to pay taxes after finishing projects commissioned by the government or importing goods. The companies and individuals can later apply to withdraw what is left from their deposits after deducting the taxes.
Corruption has been rife in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Many politicians have been arrested or removed from office for the practice.
Iraq is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It ranked 157th out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s 2021 corruption index.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has vowed to crack down on corruption and recover all the money stolen from the tax agency.
