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[size=35][size=35]"Zuhair is just a puppet," and this is the role of America and Iran.. Details of the "theft of the century" under the microscope of a British report[/size]
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2023-08-12 | 05:49
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Alsumaria News - Politics
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The biggest theft in history.” This is how a large-scale looting operation that took place in Iraq by political forces is described, and despite exposing many details of the crime that shocked Iraqi public opinion, the main suspect in the Iraqi theft of the century was released despite his confession.
The legendary looting operation, dubbed the "theft of the century", targeted tax deposits paid by oil companies to the General Commission for Taxes in Iraq, and it is believed that the participants included senior officials, party leaders and politicians, according to a report by the British website Middle East Eye.
The story of account 60032 through which the Iraqi theft of the century took place
The origins of the story go back to account number 60032 in the Iraqi Rafidain Bank, an account in which taxes are deposited for oil companies (and other companies operating in Iraq) that are obligated to pay taxes in advance when they get a contract, according to a report published by the website [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/121306/The Economist/ar/]The Economist[/url] report, prepared by [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/2527173862/%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3 %D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85/ar/]Nicholas Pelham[/url], its correspondent in the Middle East.
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The IRS holds these deposits in the account without spending them; So that companies can claim a refund of part of the tax money if they end up making a profit less than expected, but the wide bureaucratic hurdles prevent them from obtaining this money.
Tax deductions that were not claimed by companies for five years, which led to the accumulation of hundreds of millions of dollars in account 60032, then in mid-2022, information leaked that huge sums of this money had been withdrawn.
The government is resorting to an Iraqi who immigrated to Sweden to ensure the transparency of the investigations
. In theory, the Minister of Finance could have asked one of the six oversight bodies in the country to investigate the matter; But Iraq is home to powerful actors, each with its own political wing and commercial empire, and they wield sweeping influence over every aspect of government.
Bribery is rampant in the halls of government and those who cannot be bought are threatened.
So the choice fell on an Iraqi-Swedish, [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/158329508/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86 %D9%82%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1 %D8%A2%D8%BA%D8%A7/ar/]Hussein Qanbar Agha[/url], who fled Iraq in 1992 at the age of 19 after being held at a checkpoint by Saddam Hussein's men.
Qanbar moved to Sweden; Where he received his master's degree from the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/185858968/%D9%83%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9 %D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%83%D9%87%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85 %D9%84%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF/ar/]Stockholm School of Economics[/url] and worked in a Swedish bank. He was on the right track as a European businessman until America overthrew the Iraqi regime in 2003.
Like many in the diaspora, Qanbar was excited at the prospect of living in a free Iraq, the Americans claimed when they invaded the country without a UN resolution.
He quit his job and moved to Baghdad to set up a mobile payment system. But over the next five years, sectarian violence ravaged the city, and eventually Qanbar returned to Sweden.
But in 2021 he returned to Iraq to work on a banking reform project for USAID. While he was there, he heard rumors that the account of the Tax Authority in Mesopotamia had been looted.
[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/158329508/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86 %D9%82%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1 %D8%A2%D8%BA%D8%A7/ar/]Hussein Qanbar Agha[/url] responded to the Iraqi Finance Minister's request for an investigation in August 2022.
When his team examined the bank's documents, it discovered that account 60032 had been almost completely emptied.
It turned out that there were names of five companies to which the money was supposed to have been transferred, none of which was a large oil company. In fact, no one had ever heard of it.
It looked like looting on a large scale, which means that at least one of the armed factions in Iraq is likely to be involved in what will come to be known as the "theft of the century."
At that point, the lawyers and accountants told Qanbar that they wanted nothing to do with the investigation. It turned out that if he wanted to dig deeper, he would have to do it on his own.
But he continued the investigation by contacting people who work within these institutions and simply want to do a good job.
He found that about $2.5 billion had been transferred, an amount equal to the entire healthcare budget in the country. It was later revealed that they were transported in trucks in broad daylight. The withdrawals have been approved by some of the most senior officials.
Modern Iraq appears at first glance to be a democratic country with the institutions of the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4138441758/%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%A9 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%A9/ar/]Public Integrity Commission[/url], the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/118981/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Supreme Judicial Council[/url], and the Parliamentary Ethics Committee, but a former official described Iraq as "the land of gangs." Organizations that must maintain accountability are often used to target adversaries only.
Officials estimate that the amount of money that has disappeared from the public treasury since 2003 exceeds $300 billion, [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/121306/The Economist/ar/]The Economist[/url] reports.
Part of the reason for the extraordinary scale of corruption is the power-sharing system introduced by the Americans in 2003. The scheme, dreamed up by the exiles while Saddam Hussein was still in power, divided state institutions between parties claiming to represent each of Iraq's main religious and ethnic groups. Any attempt to harm these parties is portrayed as targeting the sect in an enlarged and cruder model of the Lebanese quota system.
Iraq's Theft of the Century
After Saddam was toppled, these groups plundered the country's resources, spreading nepotism, as party heads, many of them affiliated with militias, divided lucrative ministries among themselves.
Enrichment is not the only motivating factor in sabotaging politics in Iraq.. Ideology is still important.
Two major powers - Iran and America - control Iraq, and their rivalry is in fact fueling the muhasasa system.
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Mustafa al-Kadhimi, prime minister at the time of Qanbar's appointment, was in the West's camp: he had lived in Britain and maintained good relations with the CIA since he was head of Iraqi intelligence, but like many Iraqi elites, al-Kadhimi owns real estate in London.
Al-Kazemi assumed power as part of an attempt by political forces to quell the widespread protests against corruption in 2019, but he faced a coalition of political parties.
Tension had been building for several months by the time the indications of the robbery of the century emerged.
Al-Kazemi survived three assassination attempts, including an attack on his home by an explosives-laden drone in November 2021. The finance
minister who appointed Qanbar was also a member of Al-Kazemi's camp.>
By the summer of 2022, the parliamentary alliance supporting Kadhimi was disintegrating, which meant that the coalition of the politician who was hostile to him was in a position to appoint a new prime minister.
It was known that the tax office was controlled by a certain political alliance, and such a scandal would likely undermine it, giving Kadhimi and his ministers a chance for political survival.
Theft of the Century
Kadhimi's finance minister urged Qanbar to work very quickly, calling him several times a day to check on his progress.
Not only did Qanbar need to finish the report before that happened, he also needed to provide enough documentary evidence that even the most partisan of Iraqi parliamentarians could not ignore it.
Hours before the vote of no confidence, the report was handed over to the Speaker of Parliament, the Public Integrity Commission, and Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi. The statement said: "These five oil companies do not have tax deposits, and they do not have an official power of attorney from any third party to withdraw tax deposits... Withdrawals cannot be justified in any way." It mentioned the names of the owners of five front companies: two of them were registered to a man named[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/76708181/%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B1 %D8%B2%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%B1/ar/]Noor Zuhair[/url].
Iraqis are accustomed to corruption, but the scale of the theft shocked them
Iraqis are accustomed to corruption scandals, but the scale and insolence of this theft shocked them. And Iraqi news channels published, day and night, coverage of what they called "the theft of the century."
Qanbar returned to Sweden, fearing that he would be targeted by supporters of some political forces.
Omar Zuhair was 41 when he was captured. Iraqis likened him to the Colombian cocaine kingpin, Pablo Escobar.
Qanbar's report mentioned that two other businessmen are recipients of IRS money; But Zaheer was the only person people talked about.
Zuhair came from Basra, a Shiite-majority province in the south[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
To understand Zuhair's influence, it is worth noting that to issue large checks from the Tax Authority, the signatures of at least 12 different officials are required. The process often took weeks, but Zuhair got it done in a fraction of that time. According to two of the employees working there, Zuhair himself cajoled, bribed and threatened employees of the Tax Authority to speed up the heavy operations.
There were further delays to the looting. The Supreme Audit Board, an oversight body that was reasonably compliant with Iraqi standards, was supposed to give permission before the IRS issued large checks. In the summer of 2021, a senior official asked that the audit board be relieved of this responsibility.
Withdrawing and moving $2.5 billion in cash in less than a year would be a logistical challenge in any country, but Zuhair transformed, over the course of a year, the sclerotic state-run Rafidain Bank into a model of efficiency.
An official at a government bank told The Economist that the bank usually handles about two billion Iraqi dinars a day. In one day during the robbery, this number increased to 40 billion.
It is not clear what happened to the next money. Some of it appears to have been spent on[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Several politicians and officials spoke to The Economist about a group of real estate they believed to be[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/76708181/%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B1 %D8%B2%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%B1/ar/]Noor Zuhair[/url]He bought it in the posh neighborhood of Mansour, where he used to live. But most of the money, according to former security officials, was converted into dollars and taken abroad.
How did the money get out of the airport?
Exporting bags full of dollars through Baghdad airport must have been difficult.
An Iraqi source said that Zuhair used two ways to pass, one is through the airport hall of the Iraqi Intelligence Agency, and the second way is through a closed gate in the perimeter wall, where heavy loads usually enter, and then carry money through Zuhaira's private plane.
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According to a parliamentary report, Zuhair made more than 20 trips abroad in 2021 and 2022.
The chatter among the Iraqi elite was that much of the money from the theft ended up in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
A former intelligence officer told The Economist that when Zuhair learned of the Qanbar investigation, he offered the finance minister, through an intermediary, tens of millions of dollars in exchange for dropping the investigation. Abdul-Jabbar denied any direct or indirect contact with Zuhair.
After the report was delivered, Zuhair received a tip that he was about to be arrested. He rushed to the airport where his plane was waiting. But before he could take off, the security forces stormed the plane and arrested him.
There were rumors that Zuhair was transferred from the airport prison to a "VIP" detention center with a swimming pool, although the judicial authorities deny this.
The new prime minister[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4163252486/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Mohammed Al-Sudani[/url]He vows to investigate the case
and shortly after Zuhair is arrested, Al-Kadhimi is ousted from the post of Prime Minister. eye[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4163252486/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Mohammed Al-Sudani[/url]to lead the government.
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Publicly, Al-Sudani espoused Qanbar's investigation, promising that no one would be spared from the law.
A month after assuming power, he held a press conference with two piles of money next to him, which he said were hand-to-hand, and announced victoriously that he had recovered about 40 billion Iraqi dinars (about $125 million) from Zuhair.
But shortly thereafter, Zaheer was released on bail for two weeks. Officials said this was to help the authorities recover more money. Months later, Zuhair was still at large.
But Zuhair had his funds unfrozen, and in April 2023, the courts unfrozen his assets.
Faiq Zaidan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, told The Economist that Zuhair was allowed to travel so that he could liquidate his assets abroad and pay back the Iraqi state. It appears that this has already resulted in a recovery of about $270 million.
Current and former Iraqi officials had another explanation for the decision to release the prime suspect in the robbery. One of them said, "Zuhair was just a puppet."
Al-Sudani's government soon began taking the issue in a new direction. Officials appeared to have shifted their focus away from Zuhair, and instead issued arrest warrants for the people involved in his exposure.
A few days ago, it was announced[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]He intends to ask Interpol to issue international alerts to arrest former senior officials, including a former finance minister and ex-intelligence chief, on suspicion of stealing more than $2.5 billion from the country's tax commission.
The chief anti-corruption official said[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], President of the Integrity Commission, Judge[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/664732811/%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%B1 %D8%AD%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86/ar/]Haider Hanoun[/url]appointed by al-Sudani, the judiciary will also order the issuance of notices to the former prime minister's private secretary and political advisor[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/1267304981/%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B7%D9%81%D9%89 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B8%D9%85%D9%8A/ar/]Mustafa Al-Kazemi[/url].
Al-Kazemi and former Finance Minister Ali Allawi denied their involvement in the alleged corruption.
Zuhair admitted to getting help from senior figures in the previous administration.
Is there a relationship of Al-Kazemi with the case?
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Aside from the possible incitement for political reasons by the Sudanese government against former Prime Minister Al-Kazemi who is close to the West, the author of the Economist report raises questions about Al-Kazemi's relationship to the case.
Including the question about his role in relation to the flights that transported the money, as Baghdad airport is directly under the authority of the prime minister.
Despite the official travel ban for his alleged involvement in a previous fraud, Zuhair flew freely in and out of the country during the period when the money was withdrawn from the Rafidain Bank.. The Economist report asks: How did Al-Kadhimi allow this to happen?
Al-Kazemi was also head of the country's intelligence service. So he must have had some strength, and at least had some idea of what was going on.
The writer of The Economist report met Kadhimi in Britain, to which he had moved for his own safety. Kadhimi presented himself as a passive victim of circumstances.
The author of the report asked him: Didn't his security men pave Zuhair's way through the airport? Al-Kadhimi evaded the question. He replied, "First we have to look at the bank officials."
He also sought to reduce the size of the theft compared to the hundreds of billions he lost[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]As a result of corruption since 2003.
The writer of the Economist report says that an Iraqi politician told him a strange story that he needed treatment abroad, and Al-Kazemi offered him, in May 2022, a seat on a private plane at his disposal. When the politician boarded, he was surprised to discover the hero of the century robbery, Zuhair, on the plane.
A source told the author of the report that the plane landed the politician in Amman, and Buzhair headed to Beirut. Al-Kazemi responded by categorically denying this claim, which he said was "baseless."
Did the allies of Iran and America cooperate despite their differences in stealing the century?
Zuhair must have been assisted at the highest level in carrying out this colossal robbery. The two main rival factions insist on[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.](A political current and Al-Kazemi's alliance) that Zuhair is affiliated with the other.
But why shouldn't players on both sides have an interest in the process, asks the Economist's author.
And he said[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/589427464/%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AF %D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF/ar/]Sajid Jiyad[/url], the political analyst, believes that "seven factions of different stripes have reaped profits from the Iraqi robbery of the century, among them are backed by Iran, others from the United States, and supporters of the status quo - all sides benefit from corruption .. They fight each other openly, But they work together to enrich themselves, regardless of political and ideological positions."
Even the man who exposed the theft is surrounded by question marks,
says the writer of the Economist report. In light of the ambiguity of Iraqi politics, Qanbar, the Iraqi Swedish investigator, always seemed to be a beacon of clarity, but as he delved deeper into the case, he felt mysterious at times.
And then a spam email popped up in my inbox. An Iraqi researcher in Washington compiled a short dossier of material on Kadhimi, Qanbar, and others. They were allegedly part of a network that “enabled” the theft of the century. According to the dossier, Qanbar was no stranger. Quite apart from this network, his stepfather was Kadhimi's mentor. The file indicated that Qanbar played a role in appointing the general manager of the Rafidain Bank shortly before the century was stolen.
The writer of the Economist report says: When the allegations that were circulated were brought to the attention of Qanbar, he dismissed them as "fiction".
However, it turns out that some of them were true. Qanbar admitted that he knew Al-Kazemi well, and admitted that he was involved in hiring new employees at Al-Rafidain Bank after a previous scandal, but he did not make the only decision regarding these appointments.
Although the phrase "theft of the century" was spread on Iraqi social media, there was not much pressure to bring the perpetrators to justice.
It seems unlikely that any of the real beneficiaries of the theft, whoever they were, will ever face justice. The guilt that the entire political elite clings to means that there are few accountability.
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Policy
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2023-08-12 | 05:49
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Alsumaria News - Politics
British press reports revealed new details regarding the theft of tax secretariat funds, or what is known as the "theft of the century", between the role of Iran and America's allies in the theft.
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The biggest theft in history.” This is how a large-scale looting operation that took place in Iraq by political forces is described, and despite exposing many details of the crime that shocked Iraqi public opinion, the main suspect in the Iraqi theft of the century was released despite his confession.
The legendary looting operation, dubbed the "theft of the century", targeted tax deposits paid by oil companies to the General Commission for Taxes in Iraq, and it is believed that the participants included senior officials, party leaders and politicians, according to a report by the British website Middle East Eye.
The story of account 60032 through which the Iraqi theft of the century took place
The origins of the story go back to account number 60032 in the Iraqi Rafidain Bank, an account in which taxes are deposited for oil companies (and other companies operating in Iraq) that are obligated to pay taxes in advance when they get a contract, according to a report published by the website [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/121306/The Economist/ar/]The Economist[/url] report, prepared by [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/2527173862/%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3 %D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%85/ar/]Nicholas Pelham[/url], its correspondent in the Middle East.
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The IRS holds these deposits in the account without spending them; So that companies can claim a refund of part of the tax money if they end up making a profit less than expected, but the wide bureaucratic hurdles prevent them from obtaining this money.
Tax deductions that were not claimed by companies for five years, which led to the accumulation of hundreds of millions of dollars in account 60032, then in mid-2022, information leaked that huge sums of this money had been withdrawn.
The government is resorting to an Iraqi who immigrated to Sweden to ensure the transparency of the investigations
. In theory, the Minister of Finance could have asked one of the six oversight bodies in the country to investigate the matter; But Iraq is home to powerful actors, each with its own political wing and commercial empire, and they wield sweeping influence over every aspect of government.
Bribery is rampant in the halls of government and those who cannot be bought are threatened.
So the choice fell on an Iraqi-Swedish, [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/158329508/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86 %D9%82%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1 %D8%A2%D8%BA%D8%A7/ar/]Hussein Qanbar Agha[/url], who fled Iraq in 1992 at the age of 19 after being held at a checkpoint by Saddam Hussein's men.
Qanbar moved to Sweden; Where he received his master's degree from the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/185858968/%D9%83%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9 %D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%83%D9%87%D9%88%D9%84%D9%85 %D9%84%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF/ar/]Stockholm School of Economics[/url] and worked in a Swedish bank. He was on the right track as a European businessman until America overthrew the Iraqi regime in 2003.
Like many in the diaspora, Qanbar was excited at the prospect of living in a free Iraq, the Americans claimed when they invaded the country without a UN resolution.
He quit his job and moved to Baghdad to set up a mobile payment system. But over the next five years, sectarian violence ravaged the city, and eventually Qanbar returned to Sweden.
But in 2021 he returned to Iraq to work on a banking reform project for USAID. While he was there, he heard rumors that the account of the Tax Authority in Mesopotamia had been looted.
[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/158329508/%D8%AD%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%86 %D9%82%D9%86%D8%A8%D8%B1 %D8%A2%D8%BA%D8%A7/ar/]Hussein Qanbar Agha[/url] responded to the Iraqi Finance Minister's request for an investigation in August 2022.
When his team examined the bank's documents, it discovered that account 60032 had been almost completely emptied.
It turned out that there were names of five companies to which the money was supposed to have been transferred, none of which was a large oil company. In fact, no one had ever heard of it.
It looked like looting on a large scale, which means that at least one of the armed factions in Iraq is likely to be involved in what will come to be known as the "theft of the century."
At that point, the lawyers and accountants told Qanbar that they wanted nothing to do with the investigation. It turned out that if he wanted to dig deeper, he would have to do it on his own.
But he continued the investigation by contacting people who work within these institutions and simply want to do a good job.
He found that about $2.5 billion had been transferred, an amount equal to the entire healthcare budget in the country. It was later revealed that they were transported in trucks in broad daylight. The withdrawals have been approved by some of the most senior officials.
Modern Iraq appears at first glance to be a democratic country with the institutions of the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4138441758/%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%86%D8%A9 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%A9/ar/]Public Integrity Commission[/url], the [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/118981/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Supreme Judicial Council[/url], and the Parliamentary Ethics Committee, but a former official described Iraq as "the land of gangs." Organizations that must maintain accountability are often used to target adversaries only.
Officials estimate that the amount of money that has disappeared from the public treasury since 2003 exceeds $300 billion, [url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/121306/The Economist/ar/]The Economist[/url] reports.
Part of the reason for the extraordinary scale of corruption is the power-sharing system introduced by the Americans in 2003. The scheme, dreamed up by the exiles while Saddam Hussein was still in power, divided state institutions between parties claiming to represent each of Iraq's main religious and ethnic groups. Any attempt to harm these parties is portrayed as targeting the sect in an enlarged and cruder model of the Lebanese quota system.
Iraq's Theft of the Century
After Saddam was toppled, these groups plundered the country's resources, spreading nepotism, as party heads, many of them affiliated with militias, divided lucrative ministries among themselves.
Enrichment is not the only motivating factor in sabotaging politics in Iraq.. Ideology is still important.
Two major powers - Iran and America - control Iraq, and their rivalry is in fact fueling the muhasasa system.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Mustafa al-Kadhimi, prime minister at the time of Qanbar's appointment, was in the West's camp: he had lived in Britain and maintained good relations with the CIA since he was head of Iraqi intelligence, but like many Iraqi elites, al-Kadhimi owns real estate in London.
Al-Kazemi assumed power as part of an attempt by political forces to quell the widespread protests against corruption in 2019, but he faced a coalition of political parties.
Tension had been building for several months by the time the indications of the robbery of the century emerged.
Al-Kazemi survived three assassination attempts, including an attack on his home by an explosives-laden drone in November 2021. The finance
minister who appointed Qanbar was also a member of Al-Kazemi's camp.>
By the summer of 2022, the parliamentary alliance supporting Kadhimi was disintegrating, which meant that the coalition of the politician who was hostile to him was in a position to appoint a new prime minister.
It was known that the tax office was controlled by a certain political alliance, and such a scandal would likely undermine it, giving Kadhimi and his ministers a chance for political survival.
Theft of the Century
Kadhimi's finance minister urged Qanbar to work very quickly, calling him several times a day to check on his progress.
Not only did Qanbar need to finish the report before that happened, he also needed to provide enough documentary evidence that even the most partisan of Iraqi parliamentarians could not ignore it.
Hours before the vote of no confidence, the report was handed over to the Speaker of Parliament, the Public Integrity Commission, and Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi. The statement said: "These five oil companies do not have tax deposits, and they do not have an official power of attorney from any third party to withdraw tax deposits... Withdrawals cannot be justified in any way." It mentioned the names of the owners of five front companies: two of them were registered to a man named[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/76708181/%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B1 %D8%B2%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%B1/ar/]Noor Zuhair[/url].
Iraqis are accustomed to corruption, but the scale of the theft shocked them
Iraqis are accustomed to corruption scandals, but the scale and insolence of this theft shocked them. And Iraqi news channels published, day and night, coverage of what they called "the theft of the century."
Qanbar returned to Sweden, fearing that he would be targeted by supporters of some political forces.
Omar Zuhair was 41 when he was captured. Iraqis likened him to the Colombian cocaine kingpin, Pablo Escobar.
Qanbar's report mentioned that two other businessmen are recipients of IRS money; But Zaheer was the only person people talked about.
Zuhair came from Basra, a Shiite-majority province in the south[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
To understand Zuhair's influence, it is worth noting that to issue large checks from the Tax Authority, the signatures of at least 12 different officials are required. The process often took weeks, but Zuhair got it done in a fraction of that time. According to two of the employees working there, Zuhair himself cajoled, bribed and threatened employees of the Tax Authority to speed up the heavy operations.
There were further delays to the looting. The Supreme Audit Board, an oversight body that was reasonably compliant with Iraqi standards, was supposed to give permission before the IRS issued large checks. In the summer of 2021, a senior official asked that the audit board be relieved of this responsibility.
Withdrawing and moving $2.5 billion in cash in less than a year would be a logistical challenge in any country, but Zuhair transformed, over the course of a year, the sclerotic state-run Rafidain Bank into a model of efficiency.
An official at a government bank told The Economist that the bank usually handles about two billion Iraqi dinars a day. In one day during the robbery, this number increased to 40 billion.
It is not clear what happened to the next money. Some of it appears to have been spent on[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Several politicians and officials spoke to The Economist about a group of real estate they believed to be[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/76708181/%D9%86%D9%88%D8%B1 %D8%B2%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%B1/ar/]Noor Zuhair[/url]He bought it in the posh neighborhood of Mansour, where he used to live. But most of the money, according to former security officials, was converted into dollars and taken abroad.
How did the money get out of the airport?
Exporting bags full of dollars through Baghdad airport must have been difficult.
An Iraqi source said that Zuhair used two ways to pass, one is through the airport hall of the Iraqi Intelligence Agency, and the second way is through a closed gate in the perimeter wall, where heavy loads usually enter, and then carry money through Zuhaira's private plane.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
According to a parliamentary report, Zuhair made more than 20 trips abroad in 2021 and 2022.
The chatter among the Iraqi elite was that much of the money from the theft ended up in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
A former intelligence officer told The Economist that when Zuhair learned of the Qanbar investigation, he offered the finance minister, through an intermediary, tens of millions of dollars in exchange for dropping the investigation. Abdul-Jabbar denied any direct or indirect contact with Zuhair.
After the report was delivered, Zuhair received a tip that he was about to be arrested. He rushed to the airport where his plane was waiting. But before he could take off, the security forces stormed the plane and arrested him.
There were rumors that Zuhair was transferred from the airport prison to a "VIP" detention center with a swimming pool, although the judicial authorities deny this.
The new prime minister[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4163252486/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Mohammed Al-Sudani[/url]He vows to investigate the case
and shortly after Zuhair is arrested, Al-Kadhimi is ousted from the post of Prime Minister. eye[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/4163252486/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF %D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/ar/]Mohammed Al-Sudani[/url]to lead the government.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Publicly, Al-Sudani espoused Qanbar's investigation, promising that no one would be spared from the law.
A month after assuming power, he held a press conference with two piles of money next to him, which he said were hand-to-hand, and announced victoriously that he had recovered about 40 billion Iraqi dinars (about $125 million) from Zuhair.
But shortly thereafter, Zaheer was released on bail for two weeks. Officials said this was to help the authorities recover more money. Months later, Zuhair was still at large.
But Zuhair had his funds unfrozen, and in April 2023, the courts unfrozen his assets.
Faiq Zaidan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, told The Economist that Zuhair was allowed to travel so that he could liquidate his assets abroad and pay back the Iraqi state. It appears that this has already resulted in a recovery of about $270 million.
Current and former Iraqi officials had another explanation for the decision to release the prime suspect in the robbery. One of them said, "Zuhair was just a puppet."
Al-Sudani's government soon began taking the issue in a new direction. Officials appeared to have shifted their focus away from Zuhair, and instead issued arrest warrants for the people involved in his exposure.
A few days ago, it was announced[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]He intends to ask Interpol to issue international alerts to arrest former senior officials, including a former finance minister and ex-intelligence chief, on suspicion of stealing more than $2.5 billion from the country's tax commission.
The chief anti-corruption official said[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], President of the Integrity Commission, Judge[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/664732811/%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%B1 %D8%AD%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86/ar/]Haider Hanoun[/url]appointed by al-Sudani, the judiciary will also order the issuance of notices to the former prime minister's private secretary and political advisor[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/1267304981/%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B7%D9%81%D9%89 %D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B8%D9%85%D9%8A/ar/]Mustafa Al-Kazemi[/url].
Al-Kazemi and former Finance Minister Ali Allawi denied their involvement in the alleged corruption.
Zuhair admitted to getting help from senior figures in the previous administration.
Is there a relationship of Al-Kazemi with the case?
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Aside from the possible incitement for political reasons by the Sudanese government against former Prime Minister Al-Kazemi who is close to the West, the author of the Economist report raises questions about Al-Kazemi's relationship to the case.
Including the question about his role in relation to the flights that transported the money, as Baghdad airport is directly under the authority of the prime minister.
Despite the official travel ban for his alleged involvement in a previous fraud, Zuhair flew freely in and out of the country during the period when the money was withdrawn from the Rafidain Bank.. The Economist report asks: How did Al-Kadhimi allow this to happen?
Al-Kazemi was also head of the country's intelligence service. So he must have had some strength, and at least had some idea of what was going on.
The writer of The Economist report met Kadhimi in Britain, to which he had moved for his own safety. Kadhimi presented himself as a passive victim of circumstances.
The author of the report asked him: Didn't his security men pave Zuhair's way through the airport? Al-Kadhimi evaded the question. He replied, "First we have to look at the bank officials."
He also sought to reduce the size of the theft compared to the hundreds of billions he lost[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]As a result of corruption since 2003.
The writer of the Economist report says that an Iraqi politician told him a strange story that he needed treatment abroad, and Al-Kazemi offered him, in May 2022, a seat on a private plane at his disposal. When the politician boarded, he was surprised to discover the hero of the century robbery, Zuhair, on the plane.
A source told the author of the report that the plane landed the politician in Amman, and Buzhair headed to Beirut. Al-Kazemi responded by categorically denying this claim, which he said was "baseless."
Did the allies of Iran and America cooperate despite their differences in stealing the century?
Zuhair must have been assisted at the highest level in carrying out this colossal robbery. The two main rival factions insist on[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.](A political current and Al-Kazemi's alliance) that Zuhair is affiliated with the other.
But why shouldn't players on both sides have an interest in the process, asks the Economist's author.
And he said[url=https://www.alsumaria.tv/Entity/589427464/%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AF %D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF/ar/]Sajid Jiyad[/url], the political analyst, believes that "seven factions of different stripes have reaped profits from the Iraqi robbery of the century, among them are backed by Iran, others from the United States, and supporters of the status quo - all sides benefit from corruption .. They fight each other openly, But they work together to enrich themselves, regardless of political and ideological positions."
Even the man who exposed the theft is surrounded by question marks,
says the writer of the Economist report. In light of the ambiguity of Iraqi politics, Qanbar, the Iraqi Swedish investigator, always seemed to be a beacon of clarity, but as he delved deeper into the case, he felt mysterious at times.
And then a spam email popped up in my inbox. An Iraqi researcher in Washington compiled a short dossier of material on Kadhimi, Qanbar, and others. They were allegedly part of a network that “enabled” the theft of the century. According to the dossier, Qanbar was no stranger. Quite apart from this network, his stepfather was Kadhimi's mentor. The file indicated that Qanbar played a role in appointing the general manager of the Rafidain Bank shortly before the century was stolen.
The writer of the Economist report says: When the allegations that were circulated were brought to the attention of Qanbar, he dismissed them as "fiction".
However, it turns out that some of them were true. Qanbar admitted that he knew Al-Kazemi well, and admitted that he was involved in hiring new employees at Al-Rafidain Bank after a previous scandal, but he did not make the only decision regarding these appointments.
Although the phrase "theft of the century" was spread on Iraqi social media, there was not much pressure to bring the perpetrators to justice.
It seems unlikely that any of the real beneficiaries of the theft, whoever they were, will ever face justice. The guilt that the entire political elite clings to means that there are few accountability.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
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