ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq's Ministry of Justice has recovered more than $25 million in stolen public funds over the past two years, a ministry spokesperson told Rudaw on Saturday, as Baghdad expands its nationwide anti-corruption campaign.
"The Ministry of Justice has been successful in several international cases, resulting in the return of more than $25 million and the lifting of freezes on a portion of Iraqi assets abroad," Ahmed al-Luaibi, spokesperson for the justice ministry, told Rudaw.
Luaibi said the recovery effort is being carried out in coordination with the federal Commission of Integrity and through legal mechanisms under international agreements.
The announcement comes as Iraqi authorities intensify a sweeping anti-corruption campaign dubbed Operation Dawn, launched over the weekend. The campaign has so far resulted in the arrest of 21 suspects, including senior officials and politicians.
Since Operation Dawn began on Sunday, authorities have reportedly seized around $75 million in cash, along with at least 40 luxury properties, land tracts, and large weapons caches across the country.
Luaibi said legal efforts are continuing to recover additional assets, properties, and bank accounts believed to have been smuggled out of Iraq.
"Legal and judicial procedures will continue to recover property, assets, and bank accounts that have been smuggled to several countries," he said.
He also added that the ministry is enforcing Iraqi court rulings in countries where the funds are believed to be hidden, in coordination with lawyers appointed as legal representatives.
"We are currently in a meticulous follow-up phase to complete the process of returning all assets hidden in various countries," he said.
Iraq has long sought to recover billions of dollars in assets believed to have been transferred abroad through corruption.
In September 2021, Baghdad hosted the Conference for the Recovery of Stolen Funds Abroad, bringing together Arab, regional, and international representatives to strengthen cooperation on asset recovery.
Last week, Titon Mitra, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative for Iraq, told Rudaw that international experts and Iraqi officials estimate 20 percent of the country’s public funds have been lost to corruption.
“Between $150 billion and $450 billion in assets may have been moved overseas or hidden within Iraq,” complicating recovery efforts, Mitra said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Saturday his government will not tolerate corruption regardless of affiliations, as authorities expand a nationwide crackdown involving security forces and oversight bodies.
"There will be no compromise or turning a blind eye to any corrupt person, regardless of their affiliations," read a statement from the Prime Minister's office after he visited the Ministry of Interior, during which he described the ministry as central to the government’s anti-corruption effort, stressing that accountability will apply to all without exception.
Iraq ranked 136th out of 182 countries in Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), scoring 28 out of 100, reflecting a high level of public-sector corruption by global standards.
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