The Guardian reveals, with evidence, Al-Kazemi’s involvement in stealing the century

The Guardian reveals, with evidence, Al-Kazemi’s involvement in stealing the century

11-20-2022

Information/translation…
A report by the British Guardian newspaper revealed, on Sunday, new details about what was called the “theft of the century”, in which billions of dollars were blatantly looted from the Iraqi state’s treasury, amounting to a total of $2.5 billion.

The report, which was translated by the “information” agency, stated, “The theft appears to have been facilitated by the highest government offices in Iraq, according to the sources and series of money withdrawals, according to government letters issued in the summer of 2021, as documents signed by various government institutions, including the office of The then Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, audited the accounts of withdrawing money from the account of the Iraqi Tax Authority.

The report added, “The preoccupation of the media and the global community with the October 2021 poll, against the background of claims and protests against corruption, has created the atmosphere behind the scenes of embezzlement of tax revenues, which was considered the largest corruption scandal during the Western-backed Al-Kazemi era.”

And he continued, “An amount estimated at 2.5 billion dollars of tax money was embezzled by fake companies that do not have any official papers with the help of a number of corrupt officials, according to an internal investigation consisting of 41 pages, and that money was laundered by buying real estate in the most expensive neighborhoods in Baghdad.”

The report stated, “Such a massive theft can only occur with the knowledge of a wide range of government institutions, including Al-Kazemi’s office, the bank that authorized withdrawals, the Integrity Commission, and the Central Bank, according to leaked documents and interviews with dozens of officials, businessmen, and bankers with knowledge of the details of the case.”

“Heads of government departments cannot steal such sums on their own,” said a former member of the Parliament’s Finance Committee, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. “There is an agreement and everyone gets a share.”

The report indicated that the director of Al-Kazemi’s Kurdish office, Ahmed Najati, tried to deflect the accusation from Al-Kazemi by saying that “removing audits is not a justification for robbery,” describing the process of approval of the Prime Minister’s Office to remove audits and ultimately facilitating theft as “misleading.”

The report continued, “At least one of Kadhimi’s aides has close ties to the businessman who allegedly masterminded the scheme, according to several sources, including Kadhimi’s former intelligence chief Raed Jouhi and Dhia al-Musawi, the intelligence officer appointed by Kadhimi to lead the National Operations Center and who escaped.” After the judiciary issued a warrant on unrelated corruption charges.”

The report continued, “These accounts stacked with billions of dollars were from tax deposits paid by foreign companies operating in Iraq, and could be recovered upon submission of actual financial statements. But the process was so onerous that most companies wrote them off, leaving the unclaimed amounts to accumulate in the commission.” .

A former member of the Finance Committee said the proposal to cancel the audit should have been a red flag for an administration that promised to fight corruption. Instead, both the Audit Bureau and the Prime Minister’s Office issued a letter of no objection, adding that “it was all part of the plan.”

The report indicated that “the implementation of the theft depends on the accomplices within the Tax Commission who have the authority to sign the checks, as four sources within the Ministry of Finance reported that that network was established by its former director, Shaker Mahmoud, based on a letter from the Prime Minister’s office and a phone call with the audit room, where Mahmoud ordered removed the audit, according to a document seen by the Guardian.

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