How did the “bundles of money” end up in the hands of corrupt officials? A financial expert explains.
How did the “bundles of money” end up in the hands of corrupt officials? A financial expert explains.
2026-07-01
Shafaq News – Baghdad
Financial expert and former director at the Central Bank of Iraq, Mahmoud Dagher, confirmed on Wednesday that the arrival of new money packages (in both dinars and dollars) in the hands of corrupt individuals does not mean that there is an illegal channel within the Central Bank, attributing this to the natural cycle of cash movement between the Central Bank, banks, and their clients.
Dagher told Shafaq News Agency that the Central Bank provides banks with new banknotes, which in turn distribute them to individuals, companies, government departments and other entities when they withdraw their money from their accounts, stressing that this is a normal banking process.
He added that the money, after leaving the banks, becomes part of the cash circulation and may be transferred between several people, indicating that the corrupt person may obtain the money in cash from someone who legally withdrew it from his bank account, and not directly from the central bank.
He pointed out that the amount of cash circulating outside banks is estimated at about 95 trillion dinars, and it is held by individuals, private companies and some public companies, which increases the likelihood of using cash in corruption operations.
Dagher explained that corruption is often linked to cash transactions, therefore expanding electronic payment methods and reducing reliance on cash are among the most prominent tools for combating corruption, because electronic payments are traceable and monitorable.
He pointed out that corrupt individuals prefer dealing in cash, because deposit and withdrawal transactions through banks leave a clear trace that requires knowing the source of the funds and the reasons for moving them, while this oversight is less in direct cash transactions, stressing that “the less cash transactions there are and the more reliance there is on electronic payment, the fewer opportunities for corruption there are.”
Following the security campaign launched at dawn last Sunday to combat corruption, which resulted in the arrest of a number of officials and members of parliament on corruption-related charges, news platforms and social media circulated pictures and videos showing bundles of new dollars inside the homes of some of those arrested or in their possession, raising questions about how these funds reached them and their source.
shafaq.com
