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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior oil official has been sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to repay over $36 million after being convicted of illicitly profiting from state refinery contracts, Iraq’s anti-corruption body announced on Tuesday.
"Director General of the Oil Products Distribution Company sentenced to eight years in prison for profiting from contracts at the North Refineries Company," the Federal Commission of Integrity (FCoI) stated on Tuesday, adding that "the convict ordered to repay 55 billion dinars [$36.3 million] in North Refineries contracts profiteering case.”
Hussein Talib’s conviction comes months after Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and the FCoI launched Operation Dawn in late June, an ongoing nationwide anti-corruption campaign that has resulted in dozens of targeted raids and the arrest of hundreds of government officials and employees.
The FCoI in its Tuesday statement stated that Talib “intervened in awarding and disbursing the funds for 40 contracts and 29 purchase orders worth 181 billion dinars ($119 million) to companies linked to him.”
By “exploiting his connection to financing refinery companies by virtue of his position,” Talib “secured a profit of 30 billion dinars ($19.7 million) for himself and 35 billion dinars ($23 million) for others.”
Talib is a senior member of the al-Hikma Movement - one of 14 factions in Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework - and was a substitute member of parliament before he was arrested in July before being sworn in.
Talib was arrested in July after the interrogation of Adnan al-Jumaili, the former deputy oil minister and former director general of the North Refineries Company, exposed a network of contract manipulation and embezzlement at the Baiji Refinery, widening the investigation to other senior oil sector officials.
Jumaili was detained in late May on charges of embezzling around 200 billion Iraqi dinars ($131 million), sparking an investigation across state institutions that led to the seizure of millions of dollars, gold, vehicles, and real estate titles.
"The value of the funds, assets, or real estate recovered within the framework of the anti-corruption campaign is estimated at over 1.36 trillion dinars (over 1 billion dollars)," government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi told state media in late August.
Iraq ranked 136th out of 182 countries and territories in Transparency International's 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, earning a score of 28 out of 100.
