360 billion dollars smuggled from Iraq

Baghdad - INA 

The former member of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Saeed Yassin, revealed today, Thursday, the amount of the smuggled funds from Iraq, and while he announced the holding of a conference to discuss its recovery in the middle of this month, he confirmed that there are two parties working on recovery.

Yassin told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "work to recover the smuggled funds is carried out through the Integrity Commission's Money Recovery Department, the Fund for Recovering the Funds, whose membership includes the Integrity Commission and the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, justice, the judiciary, the Central Bank, the intelligence and national security agencies, as well as the Financial Supervision".

He added, "The initiative of the President of the Republic to introduce a new anti-corruption law will meet the requirements for recovering the smuggled funds," noting that ". He pointed out that "there is also the Arab Anti-Corruption Agreement," noting that "Iraq has cooperation agreements with many countries, but it needs to expand these agreements.".

Furthermore he pointed out that "there is a conference to recover funds that will be held on the 14th or 15th of September to activate the role of the Ministry of Justice, as it is considered as Iraq's lawyer before the world in order for there to be international, bilateral or collective agreements in accordance with the agreements," noting that "the volume of corruption funds is estimated within limits 360 billion dollars.

Earlier, the Presidency of the Republic announced the most prominent contents of the draft law on "recovering the proceeds of corruption" submitted by the President of the Republic, Barham Salih, to the House of Representatives.

The Presidency of the Republic said in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "The law includes all Iraqi state officials who have occupied the highest positions most vulnerable to corruption, and since 2004 until now, from the rank of general manager or above, and the competent financial authorities are preparing a documented list of occupants." These positions have been in place for the past 17 years.
In addition to that "the law aims to recover the following funds inside and outside Iraq: money and criminal proceeds in any corruption crime, or property equivalent to its value, revenues and benefits derived from the proceeds of a corruption crime, and property transferred to, exchanged, or mixed with it," stressing the necessity of "

The presidency added that "the investigation of the smuggled funds also includes family members, friends and close associates of officials who have any kind of political or commercial relationship, in addition to those with influence, who are the people who have an influence in decision-making within the state's facilities and agencies," calling on "occupants of senior positions." Submitting a written declaration within 60 days authorizing the Integrity Commission and the Iraqi courts to request information from the countries in which they have bank accounts. "