Al-Qaeda Believed to be Behind Iraqi Dinar Racket

Posted on 22 February 2012.

AKnews reports that businesses and currency traders are rejecting 10,000 dinar notes because of rumours about the increasing spread of counterfeit currency.

Government sources said last year that an estimated 7 billion dinars worth of forged 10,000 notes came into Iraq from Iran.

The fake currency is said to is said to be of high quality and very difficult to detect.

Abdul Hussein Abtan, a ‬member of the Economic Committee in the House of Representatives told AKnews: “These rumors coincided with central bank measures to increase the exchange rate of the dinar against the dollar. This relentless campaign is intended to weaken the Iraqi currency.”

Fouad al-Bayati, a specialist in security affairs, believes that al-Qaeda are involved in counterfeiting the currency.

“The security forces are hunting insurgents and forgetting about the fraud gangs associated with them, which are key financiers for insurgency … Some armed groups still have hidden administrative wings to carry out duties in the economic sector, most notably money laundering as well as falsifying identities and official documents.”

It is hoped that the introduction of the new currency, with three zeroes removed, will help the fight against fraudsters as it will replace the old currency and is said to be more difficult to counterfeit.

(Source: AKnews)
iraq-businessnews.com