The latest corruption news from Iraq – company or government bribes, theft, stealing – brought to you by Iraq Business News
Energy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani has promised that Iraq's electricity crisis will end in 2013. AKnews reports that he said only a few more energy plants were necessary to end the electricity shortage. "Iraq will have approximately 7,000 MW more after the completion of the Zubaydiah plant, the Khairat plant in Karbala, […]
Tamimi Global will pay $13 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil allegations that it paid kickbacks to a KBR employee and improper gratuities to a U.S. Army sergeant, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Dhahran-based unit of the Saudi Arabian construction and manufacturing Tamimi Group, gave kickbacks to get Army logistical support subcontracts […]
Iraq has recovered $116 million [139 billion Iraqi dinars] from bank accounts in France belonging to an official from ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, the country's Commission on Integrity said in a statement. The Commission said the funds comprised $106 million deposited in 'French Arab Union Bank' (UBAF), a French-registered bank whose shareholders include 19 Arab […]
Iraq's former anti-corruption chief slammed its leaders Monday, describing graft as "part of the struggle for power", according to a report from AFP. Rahim Hassan al-Uqailee [Judge Rahim al-Akili; al-Ugeily], who last week stepped down as head of Iraq's Integrity Commission, sharply criticised interference in his inquiries, and said he had lost political support for […]
According to a report from Aswat al-Iraq, an economic advisor to Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has described the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI)'s plan to redenominate the Iraqi currency as “the worst corruption and money-laundering process in the history of Iraq.” “The CBI must understand that it is playing with fire and undermining the course […]
Hussein al-Shahristani (pictured), Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, will be summoned to parliament after the Eid al-Fitr holiday to answer questions about two fraudulent ministry of electricity contracts worth more than $1.7 billion, according to AKnews. A member of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate the case, Uday Awwad, told the agency that MPs signatures have […]
The electricity, trade, defense and interior ministries have been identified as the most corrupt of the country's ministries, the Integrity Committee in parliament. Iraq's Integrity Commission has announced that it has opened an investigation into corruption in the Iraqi Defense Ministry AKnews reports that the investigation relates to all of the department's dealings since 2003, […]
The Deputy Chairman of Iraq’s Integrity Commission had demanded Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sack the Chairman of the Haj (Pilgrimage) Commission, Mohammed Taqi al-Moula, following charges of corruption. “There are documents and dossiers, being studied since over one month by the Integrity Commission, that had agreed that the said official was involved in corruption,” Ahmed […]
A US Army captain was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in federal prison for taking bribes to steer Army contracts in Iraq. Courthouse News reports that Bryant Williams demanded and got more than $30,000 in bribes to steer more than $930,000 worth of contracts while he served with the Army's 101st Airborne Division in […]
A member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Integrity Commission has said that southern Iraq’s Basra Integrity Commission had opened an investigation about a government’s deal to purchase 100,000 tons of sugar at above the international market price. Aliyia Nuseif told Aswat al-Iraq news agency that “the Trade Ministry had signed a contract with Zahrat al-Jibal Company […]
The latest scandal at Iraq’s ministry of electricity involves multi-billion dollar “phantom deals” with a German and Canadian company. The minister of energy has been asked to resign. But according to a report from NIQASH, the real story is not as simple as it first appears. As a long, hot summer continues to overheat the […]
Reuters reports that Iraq’s government has admitted to being duped when it signed multi-billion dollar power plant contracts with foreign companies that it later discovered were either bogus or had lied about their financial status. The announcement is embarrassing for Nouri al-Maliki’s government as it tries to lure foreign investors into Iraq. “These contracts damaged […]
