The latest corruption news from Iraq – company or government bribes, theft, stealing – brought to you by Iraq Business News
A French magistrate has decided to send giant Frence oil company Total and its chief executive to trial on charges that the company engaged in corruption during the United Nations oil-for-food program in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, according to Reuters. The magistrate is sending the company to trial on charges of corruption and involvement in fraudulent […]
A United Arab Emirates-based logistics contractor billed Defense Department authorities in Iraq for parts at prices marked up as high as 5,000 percent and 12,000 percent, according to a quarterly report released Saturday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. GovExec reports that a review of a $119 million reconstruction and logistics contract with […]
Annual inflation in Iraq is now 6.3%, according to government figures. It is likely this is due to rising commodity prices. Government receipts for oil in the last quarter were up 19% to US$20bn, the highest since before the Iraq War began. The dinar was unchanged versus the dollar during the quarter. The International Monetary […]
Bandits, border guards and big profits NIQASH’s correspondent follows the illegal nicotine trail, as he joins local smugglers taking cigarettes into Syria. Dodging border guards and bandits, he meets the locals risking their lives to deliver millions of profitable packs to smokers every day. Several days ago, two soldiers and a member of the public […]
An arms deal under which Iraq would buy $13 billion in American weapons has been recommended for cancellation by the Iraqi parliament’s integrity committee, reports AKnews. The deal has been criticized for involving extensive financial corruption. A member of the committee, Aliya Nussaif, told AKnews that the parliament has passed a request by the committee […]
Changes in legislation have led to an explosion in building companies in Iraq’s economic hub, Basra. Some exist only on paper but get jobs worth millions. Some say it’s the fault of US-formulated laws. Others say its corruption and public budgets. One of the most popular kinds of business in Basra city, the second most […]
A former U.S. Army major has admitted that he took $250,000 in bribes from two companies that wanted contracts to supply the military with bottled water in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Westlaw Journals. Derrick L. Shoemake, aged 49, admitted accepting the bribes while serving as a contracting officer’s representative in Kuwait between October 2004 […]
The Iraqi Railway Company accused government officials on Sunday of attempting to open up the transport system to private companies for personal gain through the suspension of the national transport law that was passed by the Ba'ath regime. Spokesperson for the company, Jawad al-Kharsani, told AKnews that the law meant that government ministries were required […]
General Inspector’s office at Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said 190 employees, including four directors, will be investigated on charges of financial corruption. The Integrity Commission will investigate the allegations and if they find sufficient evidence the employees will be sent to court, General Inspector Hammed al-Zaidi, told AKnews. All are suspected of 'money […]
Bloomberg reports that three former employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have been charged along with two other men with participating in a bribery and kickback scheme involving more than $50 million in Iraqi contracts. The indictment unsealed on Thursday in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, [U.S. v. Markus, 11-cr-366, U.S. […]
Officials in the Ministry of Electricity are involved in the theft of millions of dollars of fuel intended for power stations, an MP from the ruling National Coalition told AKnews on Saturday. Susan al-Saad said that the tankers used to transport fuel to power plants across the country regularly go missing, and that this would […]
On Wednesday a number of currency dealers in southern Iraq’s Nassirya City reported the spread of a new counterfeit 10,000-dinar notes, according to Aswat al-Iraq. “We have noticed the existence of a false 25,000-dinar currency in the market, being cautious against it, but a new false 10,000-dinar note, with a very close print to the […]
