"Tidbits From TNT" Tuesday Morning 11-29-2022

Nov 29

TNT:

Tishwash: Report: The Central Bank of Iraq stops dealings with Lebanese banks

About one week after the decision of the Central Bank of Iraq to stop all transactions between Lebanese banks and Iraqi financial institutions and banks, following the discovery of large suspicions of corruption.

Sources in Baghdad revealed the latest results of the investigation conducted by the Iraqi Integrity Commission in Baghdad, and the amount of money actually withdrawn.

Banking corruption operations are summarized in the transfer of accounts by Iraqi and Lebanese companies and personalities in troubled Lebanese banks to the Iraqi government branches of Al-Rafidain and Al-Rashid Banks in Beirut, in order to withdraw funds through them, in a fraudulent operation involving Iraqi bank employees and officials.

An Iraqi official in the Integrity Commission said, in a press statement, followed by “The Independent”, that “the current investigations confirm the existence of great and serious suspicions of corruption that include the process of transferring balances without balance from the troubled Lebanese banks to the Iraqi ones, meaning transferring the financial dispute between the depositor and the troubled Lebanese bank to between the banks.” Iraqi government and troubled Lebanese banks.

The official, who declined to be named, added: “This corruption process involves Iraqi political figures and people from armed factions who pressured these transactions to pass, and we fear that the amount that will be discovered in the end is large.”

And he explained by saying: “There are Iraqi and Lebanese companies and investors who have money in troubled banks and are unable to pay it to them. They made an illegal arrangement, in collusion with officials, to transfer their balances in those banks to the government branches of the Rafidain and Rashid banks in Beirut, and then receive the amounts from them, meaning The bank is supposed to receive later the amounts from the Lebanese banks with the commission, but the banks do not have any ability to pay, which means transferring the financial dispute with bankrupt banks. Regarding the transferred sums, he said: “Until now, we are talking about tens of millions of dollars that have been implemented since Lebanon’s financial crisis several years ago.”

And the Central Bank of Iraq decided, last Wednesday, to stop joint transactions between Lebanese and Iraqi banks, which include transferring the balances of depositors in banks to their Iraqi counterparts, one day after a statement by the Iraqi Integrity Commission announcing the opening of an investigation into the process of transferring balances deposited in Lebanese banks to the Iraqi Rafidain Bank. Beirut branch.

According to an official statement issued by the Integrity Commission in Baghdad, in which it said, “The Supreme Commission has begun an investigation into the process of transferring balances deposited in Lebanese banks to the Rafidain Bank in Beirut.

The statement added that, “Suspicions of corruption are being investigated in the process of transferring balances deposited in lagging Lebanese banks to the Rafidain Bank – Beirut branch, as well as the bank account of the Rashid Bank in the Central Bank of Lebanon.”

And it confirmed the issuance of judicial summons orders against the Director General of Al-Rafidain Bank and his assistant, who were relieved of their positions shortly before the new corruption suspicions were discovered, as part of extensive changes supervised by the new Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani.

The statement stressed that “the public will be provided with developments in the progress of the investigation in the case and decisions issued by the judiciary against the accused, as permitted by law and without prejudice to the confidentiality of the investigation.”

A member of the Integrity Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Hadi al-Salami, said, “A corruption deal took place in Lebanon, and we are awaiting investigation procedures by the Integrity Commission.”

Al-Salami added that “influential parties and personalities are involved in the case with officials of the Rafidain Bank, with the aim of transferring funds unrealistically and on paper only.” .

A member of the “State of Law” coalition, Alia Nassif, accused the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of being involved in the case. And she said in a statement, “A transfer of funds from lagging banks in Lebanon to the Rafidain and Al-Rasheed banks involves a director general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” explaining that two financial transfers were recently monitored for this official: the first at (one million and 250 thousand dollars) and the second at (two million and 500 thousand Dollars) and there are investigations at the Corruption Cases Court in Karkh in Baghdad.

For his part, Mustafa Sanad, a member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, said, in a written clarification to him, that the corruption process related to transferring the balances of troubled Lebanese banks “was not completed.”

He added, “It was supposed to withdraw from 10 to 18 billion dollars legitimately with legal accounting intelligence, but the operations were stopped after the first two million dollars, thanks to the clean network spread everywhere,” without giving further details.

On the other hand, economic and financial expert Abdul Rahman Al-Mashhadani said, “The Integrity Commission’s move on the issue of suspicious transfers confirms that there is a huge corruption process. The commission only moves through information confirming the existence of large and serious financial suspicions of corruption. link

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Tishwash: The State Administration Alliance decides to activate Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution

Today, Monday evening, the State Administration Alliance held a meeting at the home of the late former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

The coalition stated in a statement, of which Mawazine News received a copy, that "it was decided in the meeting that was hosted by Pavel Jalal Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to activate Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, provided that a committee is formed for the same purpose to carry out its duties within a period of 10 days."

He added, "The meeting discussed security developments, completing the new government's work program, and other important issues related to the general situation in the country."

The statement indicated, "The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, the leader of the State of Law, Nuri al-Maliki, and the leader of the Jamahiriya Party, Ahmed Abdullah al-Jubouri. link

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Tishwash: Money in exchange for release... The "theft of the century" settlement in Iraq

Bail does not mean that the legal procedures against the accused will be dropped, but the case will be referred to the competent court according to the accusation article.”

The new government in Iraq decided to settle the " Stolen of the Century " file through the principle of conditional release in return for the recovery of the looted funds , in a step that is considered the first in the history of the modern Iraqi state since the 1920s.

The move was announced by the Iraqi Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, in a press conference, about the recovery of part of the funds for tax secretariats that were stolen with a legal trick by businessman Nour al-Khafaji and a number of his partners, which amounted to about three trillion and 700 billion Iraqi dinars ($2.5 billion) through instruments issued. From the government Rafidain Bank and the Tax Department.

According to Al-Sudani, the Iraqi government has recovered 182 billion Iraqi dinars (123 million dollars) out of a trillion and 681 billion Iraqi dinars(1.1 billion dollars) seized by businessman Nour Al-Khafaji, indicating that this amount was delivered by Al-Khafaji according to a settlement agreement that will include the release by the judiciary on bail to deliver the full amount within two weeks, aiming to allow him to sell the real estate

he bought with this amount and return it to the state.

Al-Sudani added, "There are bodies within the Tax Authority and other supervisory and responsible parties that facilitated the process of theft of trusts, and we will announce it after completing the investigations ," stressing that no party involved in this process will be excluded. Al-Sudani presented the sum of the sukuk and funds disbursed by a group of the companies involved, indicating that the disbursed funds amounted to three trillion and 754 billion and 642 million and 664 thousand dinars ($2.5 billion).

money for release

Al-Sudani called on the defendants against whom arrest warrants were issued to turn themselves in and hand over the stolen sums, indicating that the government will work with the judiciary to help them in accordance with the law, indicating, "We will follow up on any accused and recover the stolen sums. The criterion of our relations with all countries is the extent of response in recovering the people's stolen money."

government parties

For his part, Haider Hanoun, head of the Federal Integrity Commission, said in statements to the official Iraqi channel, "There are important parties in the previous government that facilitated the task of removing these funds outside Iraq, and they will be announced soon."

Economic affairs specialist Safwan Qusai believes that the government's action aims to provide an opportunity to recover the stolen funds to the state treasury, stressing the need to take guarantees in order to return the funds before the release process.

Qusai said, "The process of returning the money in full is the primary goal of the government, but it is not possible to bypass the Penal Code, which sets penalties for those who try to steal public money," noting that "there may be penalties, whether imprisonment or imprisonment, for those who do such a thing." act, and the Penal Code cannot be bypassed in such a situation.”

Encouraging steps

He pointed out that the judicial authorities, when fully recovering the funds, will take into account the imposition of lenient provisions, because the main goal is to restore confidence in the Iraqi economic and financial system. He warned that the international community would deal with Iraq in a different way if the government could not impose its authority on the billions that leaked across the borders, stressing the need for an effort to return the entire amount.

He continued, "The government's failure to fully recover the money in exchange for the thief's release will reflect negatively on the international community's view of its behavior," calling on the government to tighten its grip on the stolen money and ensure that the thief will return and not mitigate the penalty except in accordance with a legal procedure.

Legal specialist Ali Al-Tamimi revealed that release on bail is possible according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, pointing out that bail is conditional on the delivery of amounts.

Al-Tamimi said, "The release is within the authority of the investigating judge, according to Articles 109 and 110 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, because the legal article under which the accused is arrested accepts bail, especially since the bail is conditional on the delivery of the sums in question."

He added that bail does not mean that the legal procedures against the accused will be forfeited, but that the case will be referred to the competent court according to the accusation article, pointing out that this procedure applies with the criminal policy that aims to achieve the public interest according to the rule that if two interests conflict, the public interest is preferred over the private one link

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Tishwash: hmmm I wonder why this is on the CBi website

The Russian Central Bank introduces a new banknote (CBi Site)