ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announced on Sunday that over $91 million was recovered from what authorities labeled the “theft of the century,” marking the second batch of stolen money retrieved.
An investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October concluded that $2.5 billion in tax funds were stolen from the General Commission of Taxes’ account at Baghdad's Rafidain Bank between September 2021 and August 2022, during the tenure of former finance minister Ali Allawi.
A statement from the prime minister’s office stated that over 134 billion Iraqi dinars which were deposited in the bank were recovered “as promised” by Sudani last month.
Late last month, Sudani announced in a televised speech that authorities had retrieved around 182.7 billion Iraqi dinars (over $125 million) from the money stolen. “We will not leave out anyone or any name or any party involved, regardless of who they are, and the parties involved will be announced after completing the investigation,” he vowed at the time.
Marking the International Anti-Corruption Day on Friday, the Iraqi premier reiterated his cabinet’s commitment to battling the endemic corruption that plagues all levels of the Iraqi state.
Rampant corruption plagues all levels of the Iraqi state, and official figures published last year estimated that well over 400 billion dollars has gone missing from state coffers since former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in 2003.
The crisis-hit country ranks 157 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index.
