ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces on Tuesday seized four million US dollars at a checkpoint in Tuz Khurmatu district, Saladin province in Federal Iraq, on possible links to embezzlement amid a series of arrests in connection to Iraq’s national anti-corruption campaign.
A senior security source in Salahaddin province told Rudaw's Hastyar Qadir on Tuesday that funds totalling four million US dollars were found inside a vehicle at the Abbas Chuma checkpoint, located south of the Tuz Khurmatu district, the main road route between Salahaddin and Diyala provinces for both commercial and passenger transport.
The vehicle, bearing a Baghdad license plate, was heading toward Diyala. The driver, who was alone in the vehicle, has been detained for questioning. According to the source, the seized funds are now in the custody of local police, and an investigation is underway to determine their origin and whether they are connected to corruption networks.
Investigations are being conducted as part of the Iraqi government’s massive anti-corruption campaign known as “Operation Dawn,” initiated by Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi, who ordered the launch of security forces to carry out large-scale operations in Baghdad and other provinces early Sunday morning.
Arrests include over 21 officials, including former Salahadin governor Raed al-Jubouri and three former members of parliament from the province, and Adnan al-Jumaili, the former deputy oil minister for refining affairs, accused of embezzlement of 200 billion dinars ($152 million).
Security sources said authorities are examining whether the cash was being moved to conceal proceeds linked to corruption cases currently under investigation.
On Monday, Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council announced the seizure of large sums of cash and properties during an ongoing corruption investigation involving the deputy minister of oil for distribution affairs, Ali Maarij al-Bahadly, who was sanctioned by the US in May.
Preliminary investigations resulted in the seizure of “a large amount of cash” amounting to "$11 million US dollars and four billion Iraqi dinars ($3 million) in addition to the seizure of several properties,” an investigating judge from the Central Anti-Corruption Criminal Court said in a statement on Monday.
