The latest corruption news from Iraq – company or government bribes, theft, stealing – brought to you by Iraq Business News
The Ministry of Education has today launched new curricula for both primary and secondary schools in Iraq. The aim is to raise awareness and understanding of the concepts of integrity, transparency, human rights and honesty. The new curricula were designed by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP). This innovative […]
The Iraqi Prime Minister reportedly insisted on Monday that some of the fake bomb detectors Iraq bought are actually functional, despite overwhelming evidence that none of them work. According to AFP, Nouri al-Maliki told reporters: "The best device in the world does not detect (explosives) more than 60 percent (of the time)... and results we […]
The conman who made $84 million selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other countries has been jailed for ten years by a court in the UK. Passing sentence on Jim McCormick, Judge Richard Hone said: "The device was useless, the profits outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the […]
By Padraig O'Hannelly. Before the local elections, an art student climbed the tallest building in central Baghdad and hung a banner depicting a giant eye, with the caption "We can see you", overlooking the Green Zone. It's an image that should be in the minds of all who consider bribery to be a perk of […]
A British businessman has been found guilty of an $84-million fraud involving the sale of fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other countries. A jury found Jim McCormick guilty on three counts of fraud over the scam, which involved passing off novelty golfball finders, containing no functioning electronics, as bomb detectors. They "ADE651" detectors were […]
By John Lee. Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) chairman, Riad Al Sadik (pictured), has said Leighton's name “became very, very bad in Iraq” in 2012 following the bribery scandal. “HLG was definitely affected,” he told The Australian. “It took us quite some time to clean this up.” The company sacked a senior manager last year as […]
By John Lee. A team from Iraq's Commission on Integrity (CoI) has arrested an official of the Sunni Endowment for taking bribes to from investors in return for the use of a property owned by the Endowment. The official is accused of taking a bribe of $250,000 in return for the use of the Sara […]
By John Lee. An American contractor has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for taking at least $3.7 million in bribes and kickbacks while working for the US army in Iraq. John Alfy Salama Markus, 40, pleaded guilty in September before a federal judge in New Jersey to taking the money in connection with […]
From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The US government is still counting the cost of rebuilding Iraq after the invasion ten years ago. But the office responsible for hunting for millions of dollars stolen in the process is being […]
By John Lee. An Iraqi lawsuit accusing more than 90 companies of conspiring with Saddam Hussein's regime to frustrate the United Nations' program, and depriving Iraqis of roughly $10 billion of essential aid, has been dismissed by a court in New York. Reuters reports that U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said the government of Iraq […]
By John Lee. Washington Post reports that the mandate and funding of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), which was established in October 2004, is due to expire in March, marking what it describes as the end of an effort to document and fix the myriad failings of the most ambitious U.S. rebuilding […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi authorities have reportedly released the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Mohamed Salih, who has been detained for more than month on charges related to corruption. In October, Prime Minister Maliki removed the head of the central bank, Sinan al-Shabibi, accusing him of mismanagement and currency manipulation. He […]
