Last fall, Iraq discovered "the heist of the century" had taken place without anyone noticing until well after it took place. $2.5 billion dollars -- public dollars -- were stolen by government officials. Not that shocking when Transparency International finds, year after year, Iraq to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Today, THE NATIONAL reports:
Iraq's judiciary has issued arrest warrants for four former government officials over the theft of $2.5 billion in public funds in one of the country's biggest corruption scandals.
An investigating judge in Baghdad issued the warrants on Saturday, the country's anti-corruption agency said.
The four men are accused of "facilitating the embezzlement of sums belonging to the tax authorities", it said.
The agency said the officials would also be subject to an asset freeze.
The four men, who include a former finance minister and staff of former Iraqi prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, all live outside the country, an official at the agency told AFP.
THE CRADLE carries an AFP report which adds, "The warrants do not include any names, yet an anonymous source identified them as former Finance Minister Ali Allawi, Cabinet Director Raed Jouhi, Kadhimi’s personal secretary Ahmed Najati, and his political advisor Mushrik Abbas." Karwan Faidhi Dri (RUDAW) confirms that those are the four the arrest warrants were issued for and notes, "Official figures published in 2021 estimated that well over $400 billion has gone missing from state coffers since former dictator Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown in 2003." Also on corruption, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Senior officials in Iraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement will be questioned over the allocation of funds for a major project in Nineveh province, the country's anti-corruption body said on Friday.
The Iraqi Integrity Commission has summoned officials including the ministry's undersecretary after an investigation into suspected breaches in awarding the contract for the project to establish Al Amleh camp in the northern province.
Others who will be questioned include the director of the ministry's contracts department, as well as the heads and members of the analysis committees, which held “discussions to revise and follow up on prices, supervision and orders" related to the project, the corruption watchdog said.
In other corruption news, AFP reports:
Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson has said it will pay a $207 million fine for breaching a deal with US authorities by not disclosing an investigation relating to suspected bribes to the Islamic State group in Iraq.
The company entered “a guilty plea regarding previously deferred charges relating to conduct prior to 2017,” for not disclosing an internal 2019 investigation relating under a 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), it said in a statement late Thursday.
“The entry of the plea agreement will bring the 2019 DPA to an end,” the company said of the 195 million euro fine.
The US Justice Dept issued the following:
Ericsson to Plead Guilty and Pay Over $206M Following Breach of 2019 FCPA Deferred Prosecution Agreement
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Ericsson), a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has agreed to plead guilty and pay a criminal penalty of more than $206 million after breaching a 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA).
Ericsson breached the DPA by violating the agreement’s cooperation and disclosure provisions. Based on the same underlying criminal conduct that gave rise to the DPA, Ericsson will plead guilty to engaging in a long-running scheme to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes, falsifying books and records, and failing to implement reasonable internal accounting controls in multiple countries around the world.
“When the department afforded Ericsson the opportunity to enter into a DPA to resolve an investigation into serious FCPA violations, the company agreed to comply with all provisions of that agreement,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Instead of honoring that commitment, Ericsson repeatedly failed to fully cooperate and failed to disclose evidence and allegations of misconduct in breach of the agreement. As a result of these broken promises, Ericsson must plead guilty to two criminal offenses and pay an additional fine. Companies should be on notice that we will closely scrutinize their compliance with all terms of corporate resolution agreements and that there will be serious consequences for those that fail to honor their commitments.”
According to court documents, beginning in 2000 and continuing until 2016, Ericsson used third-party agents and consultants to make bribe payments to government officials and to manage off-the-books slush funds in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait. These agents were often engaged through sham contracts and paid pursuant to false invoices, and the payments to them were improperly accounted for in Ericsson’s books and records. In 2019, Ericsson resolved this criminal conduct by entering a DPA with the department in connection with a two-count criminal information filed in the Southern District of New York. As part of the DPA, Ericsson paid a total criminal penalty of over $520 million and agreed to the imposition of an independent compliance monitor for three years. An Ericsson subsidiary, Ericsson Egypt Ltd, also pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA.
Following the 2019 resolution, Ericsson breached the DPA by failing to truthfully disclose all factual information and evidence related to the Djibouti scheme, the China scheme, and other potential violations of the FCPA’s anti-bribery or accounting provisions. Ericsson also failed to promptly report and disclose evidence and allegations of conduct related to its business activities in Iraq that may constitute a violation of the FCPA. These disclosure failures prevented the United States from bringing charges against certain individuals and taking key investigative steps.
“Ericsson engaged in significant FCPA violations and made an agreement with the Department of Justice to clean up its act,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “The company’s breach of its obligations under the DPA indicate that Ericsson did not learn its lesson, and it is now facing a steep price for its continued missteps. As Ericsson’s anticipated guilty plea makes abundantly clear, the Southern District of New York will hold to account companies that fail to live up to obligations to root out and voluntarily report their misconduct to the Department of Justice.”
“Today’s more than $200 million criminal penalty against Ericsson underscores the significant consequences that result when a DPA is breached,” said Chief James C. Lee of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Ericsson’s multiple cooperation and disclosure failures led to this breach, resulting in the company having to plead guilty and pay additional penalties.”
Under the terms of the plea agreement, which must be accepted by the court, Ericsson agreed to plead guilty to the original charges deferred by the 2019 DPA: one count of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA and one count of conspiracy to violate the internal controls and books and records provisions of the FCPA. Ericsson will also be required to serve a term of probation through June 2024 and has agreed to a one-year extension of the independent compliance monitor. The plea agreement also requires Ericsson to pay an additional criminal penalty of $206,728,848 – which includes the elimination of any cooperation credit originally awarded pursuant to the DPA.
The IRS-CI investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Michael Culhane Harper of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Abramowicz and Juliana Murray for the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section is responsible for investigating and prosecuting FCPA matters. Additional information about the Justice Department’s FCPA enforcement efforts can be found at www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa.
Approximately two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, Jared Keller (TASK AND PURPOSE) notes:
It’s been nearly 20 years since a U.S.-led military coalition invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein, and U.S. troops are still fighting alongside the Iraqi government to stabilize the country’s security situation.
In February, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) conducted 33 partnered operations with coalition military personnel targeting Islamic State group militants, according to the latest data from U.S. Central Command, the exact same number it conducted in January of this year.
When do US troops leave Iraq? Ever?
At Brookings, Ranj Alaadin writes:
Since the appointment of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in October 2022, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella organization of mostly Shiite militia groups that is accorded a formal status as an auxiliary branch of the Iraqi security forces, is making a comeback. Despite many challenges and serious setbacks since 2018, the PMF has shown a marked ability to bounce back from weakened leadership and internal fractures, a significant electoral defeat, and the loss of political capital with large segments of the Iraqi public. It has survived pressures resulting from the January 2020 U.S. assassinations of its former commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and his Iranian sponsor, Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and from measures undertaken by the former prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Not only has the PMF proved resilient, but it also retains political and military advantages that are likely to make it a force to be reckoned with for decades to come.
Yet the PMF also faces challenges, and its malign activities, which include human rights abuses, may yet be curtailed, especially if the West and its regional allies can work with moderate actors in Iraq or those that fear the organization’s monopolization of power. The most significant of the PMF’s difficulties comes in the form of Iraq’s intra-Shiite political rivalries. Both the PMF’s power and vulnerabilities were manifest last August when Iraq was pushed to the brink of civil war following political tensions and violent confrontations between the PMF and its political allies, known as the Shiite Coordination Framework, and their rival, Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr heads Iraq’s most powerful sociopolitical movement, the Sadrist movement, and one of the country’s most powerful militia groups, Saraya al-Salam. Although his withdrawal from politics is likely temporary, Sadr will remain a significant challenge for the PMF in future religious leadership succession contests, economic turf battles, and day-to-day politicking. This intra-Shiite contestation as well as external pressures will not only threaten the PMF but can also reignite more violence, even another civil war.
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