Iraq has recovered "
part
" of the 2.5 billion dollars fraudulently withdrawn from a tax bank account, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani announced on Sunday November 27, calling on anyone involved in this scandal to return and return stolen public funds.
"
The competent authorities have been able to recover a first tranche of an amount of 182.6 billion Iraqi dinars
", or more than 125 million dollars, announced Mohamed Chia al-Soudani.
He also announced that one of the businessmen involved in the case, Nour Zouhair Jassem, had returned just over $125 million, out of the more than $1 billion he "
confessed
" to having obtained .
.
The businessman will be released on bail, in exchange for which he will return the rest of the stolen money within two weeks, said Mohamed Chia al-Soudani.
Samples between September 2021 and August 2022
The case, publicized in mid-October, provoked strong indignation in an Iraq rich in oil and hit by endemic corruption.
Read alsoCorruption undermines reconstruction projects in Iraq
A document from the General Tax Administration explained that these 2.5 billion dollars were collected between September 2021 and August 2022, via 247 checks cashed by five companies.
The money was then withdrawn in cash from the accounts of these companies, whose owners, mostly on the run, are the subject of arrest warrants.
He was speaking during a televised address, flanked by stacks of banknotes piled up in bundles.
These funds were returned by Nour Zouhair Jassem, arrested at the end of October at Baghdad airport while trying to leave the country on a private jet.
An agreement with the accused
Justice has reached an "
agreement
" with the accused to return the full amount, said Mohamed Chia al-Soudani.
“
He will be released on bail to facilitate the restitution process
.”
Another accused was arrested in the autonomous region of Kurdistan and will be handed over to the authorities in Baghdad, said Mohamed Chia al-Soudani.
Read alsoIraq: investigation into the underside of the cancer of corruption
"
We call on all the defendants who are the subject of an arrest warrant in this case to surrender and return the stolen sums
", hammered the Prime Minister.
“
The most important thing is the return of the funds.
What does it matter if so and so is in prison, if the ($2.5 billion) is not in the state coffers?
“, he justified.
Despite a corruption that has infiltrated all state institutions and public administrations, if convictions exist in Iraq, they often target the intermediate levels of the state or simple executors, rarely the top of the pyramid.
