Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani announced on Wednesday the return of more than $80 million in stolen funds from the state treasury. He pointed out that this is part of “an ongoing effort by the government to recover Iraqi funds smuggled out of the border.” During an interview with him that aired on Iraqi state television on Tuesday evening, Al-Sudani confirmed that fraudulent transfers of dollars abroad had taken place, indicating that the matter was disclosed at the start of the implementation of the rules that sponsor financial transfers in a step that coincided with a decline in the value of the dinar against the dollar. The prime minister explained that foreign currency was smuggled abroad through transfers on the basis of fake import invoices, the prices of which were inflated. He said the smuggling was through “falsified invoices and the money was coming out and being smuggled out, and that’s the reality, otherwise what would we be importing $300 million a day?” He added: “What does it mean that we imported $300 million worth of goods a day? That money was inevitably leaving Iraq, and it was a chronic problem for many years.”
The Prime Minister deduced the existence of smuggling, stating that prior to the implementation of the Swift system, the Central Bank of Iraq was selling many times more green currency to merchants than what it sells to them today, and yet there are no missing goods. in the markets today. Iraq suffers from chronic corruption that undermines public administration and the entire economy. He said, “In the past, we were selling $300 million, $200 million, $250 million a day. Now the central bank is selling 30, 40 or 50 million dollars a day, and what has changed, what has been lost in the market, nothing.” And al-Sudani continued: “So, where did the money that is withdrawn go? And all this with fake invoices. There are goods that they import at irrational prices, and it is clear that the goal is to get the currency out. Iraq. This business must be stopped.”
And at the end of November last year, Al-Sudani appeared, in a television appearance next to him were piles of cash in US dollars and Iraqi currency, which, according to him, were equivalent to 182 billion dinars (about 121.3 million dollars). that the Iraqi government succeeded in recovering an amount of 3.75 trillion dinars ($2.5 billion) that had disappeared from the accounts of the Iraqi tax department. Transparency International, a global watchdog, ranked Iraq 157th out of 180 countries in its 2022 index, the same spot for the second year in a row.
