Iraqi investigators carried out a major anti-corruption operation on Sunday, raiding several homes in exclusive Baghdad neighborhoods and arresting dozens of prominent public figures.
One of the most remarkable arrests was Deputy Minister of Oil for Distribution Affairs Ali Maarij al-Bahadly, whose home proved to have $14 million in cash stuffed into its walls.
The Iraqi judiciary released footage of investigators smashing through the wall of al-Bahadly’s pool house and discovering suitcases filled with American dollars and Iraqi dinars, plus a few luxury goods, such as a Rolex wristwatch.
The presiding judge of the Iraqi Central Criminal Court for Corruption, which has taken Bahadly into custody, said the suitcases full of cash were discovered during the “initial investigation” of the deputy oil minister. One can only imagine what the full investigation will look like.
Bahadly was directly in charge of selling and distributing refined fuel products across the entire country, which put him in close contact with traders, distributors, and numerous local officials. His position was considered exceptionally sensitive for this reason, although surprisingly enough, he was not caught with his hand in the biggest cookie jar.
That distinction belongs to another deputy oil minister, Adnan al-Jumaili, who had almost $86 million in cash when he was arrested in late May. The judiciary said that 70 properties, 21 vehicles, and 6.6 pounds of gold jewelry have been seized so far, in addition to the mountain of cash.
The anti-corruption crackdown was ordered by Iraq’s new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, soon after he was sworn into office by parliament in May. The Iraqi public was furious about corruption, mismanagement, and the reluctance of previous governments to take action against politically-connected officials.
The U.S. government also pressured the new prime minister to take action, and was specifically interested in Bahadly, who was targeted for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in early May for “abusing his position to facilitate the diversion of oil to be sold for the benefit of the Iranian regime and its proxy militias in Iraq.”
“Like a rogue gang, the Iranian regime is pillaging resources that rightfully belong to the Iraqi people. Treasury will not stand idly by as Iran’s military exploits Iraqi oil to fund terrorism against the United States and our partners,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said when announcing the sanctions in May.
Other officials caught up in the anti-corruption dragnet include Raed al-Jubouri, current health director and former governor of the province where Adnan al-Jumaili lives, and Alaa Samir al-Jubouri, a top official with the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity.
In addition to the arrests, Prime Minister al-Zaidi canceled a massive $764 million Baghdad airport project on June 14 over corruption concerns.
Some observers worried that al-Zaidi’s long-overdue anti-corruption drive would stall out, despite some big early headlines, for the same reason that previous efforts to curb rampant corruption have failed: Iraq’s governing coalition is fragile, and could completely disintegrate if some factions think they are being treated unfairly. Many of the factions in that coalition are heavily armed.
“I would expect the campaign to stop once pursuing it further begins to carry significant political, security, or systemic costs. For now, however, there are indications that additional arrests may still be forthcoming,” Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies researcher Harith Hasan told The National on Tuesday.
“Corruption in Iraq is politically protected. Thus, it becomes a very complicated task to fight it. It is linked directly to the nature and the composition of the political system,” media professor Ghalib Aldaamy told Al Jazeera News.
“Can you imagine that some of those who commit such crimes believe they are not doing something wrong because they hold a religious doctrine that states that public funds belong to no one?” Aldaamy asked.
Former Iraqi Federal Integrity Commission chief Mousa Faraj told Al Jazeera he was impressed by the prime minister’s effort so far, but added that $14 million stuffed in a minister’s walls is a fraction of the stolen money that investigators might find if they look in the right places.
“My advice to the prime minister is to start with serious and major old files. At the top of them are the Central Bank currency auctions in previous years, where corruption reached tens of billions of dollars,” Faraj said.
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