A new step recently announced by Iraq as part of its anti-corruption measures and attempts to recover the looted and smuggled funds abroad, by being able for the first time to legally penetrate international banking secrecy through the efforts of the Integrity Commission and the Iraq Funds Recovery Fund.

This coincided with a state of frustration on the part of observers and specialists in political and economic affairs, due to the failure of this penetration in the past due to the presence of several obstacles, most notably that these accounts are not usually registered in the names of those accused of corruption.

Through this penetration, Iraq will be able to see the contents of the treasury in Switzerland, and all this comes after Transparency International’s 2021 reports indicated a clear improvement and progress in the classification of Iraq among the countries of the world in the Corruption Perceptions Index report issued by the organization.

The defense estimated the money smuggled outside Iraq at between 300 and 350 billion dollars (Al-Jazeera)

A member of the former Parliamentary Integrity Committee, Representative Taha Al-Defee, had estimated - in a previous report to Al-Jazeera Net - that the smuggled money ranged between 300 and 350 billion dollars, in the years following the American invasion, except for the money that was smuggled before that.

This comes as the Integrity Commission continues to disclose the prevention of cases of waste of public money constantly, including what it mentioned - in its annual report for the year 2021 - about preventing the waste of more than 15 trillion dinars (about 10 billion and 279 million dollars) and that public funds - which were recovered and investigated In it or issuing court rulings to return it, as well as the ones that the commission prevented and stopped wasting based on its procedures and were actually returned to the public treasury account - a total of (642) billion dinars, in addition to another amount of 10 billion dollars.

Al-Ansari demanded the assignment of research and investigation companies regarding smuggled Iraqi funds (Al-Jazeera)

Confusion with the concept of confidentiality

Despite what Iraq announced, in fact there is a confusion in understanding banking secrecy, as the latter no longer means covering up accounts belonging to the corrupt or funds of unknown or illegitimate source, whether in Switzerland or any of the countries that follow international instructions to implement anti-corruption and crime laws The organization, according to the expert in banking and financial affairs, Aqeel Al-Ansari, who confirmed that in the last ten years, all bank accounts have been subjected to scrutiny and investigation.

In the past few weeks, the name of Iraq was removed from the European Union's list of countries classified as high-risk, and this means that Iraq can - according to Al-Ansari - benefit in terms of exchanging knowledge, technologies and experiences from the European Union.

With regard to money smuggling, corruption and organized crime, Al-Ansari sees - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that it enters the accounts of companies that are registered in complex ways with the aim of concealing the names of the real owners of those accounts.

In light of this, he proposes several steps that he considers necessary for Iraq, most notably knowing and prosecuting individuals and their institutions according to Iraqi and international laws in all transparency, as well as appointing research and investigation companies for these funds in cooperation with Iraqi commercial attaches abroad, and making agreements with the most important countries in which accounts are suspected.

If the above steps are applied, Al-Ansari believes that Iraq can recover some of that money, which is estimated at more than 250 billion dollars distributed over more than 50 countries.

Al-Rubaie hopes that Iraq will continue its legal efforts, in cooperation with various countries, to recover the looted funds (Al-Jazeera)

Hundreds of files

However, the head of the Al-Nahrain Foundation for Supporting Transparency and Integrity in Iraq, Muhammad Al-Rubaie, says that the country has not penetrated the banking system, as this is a gang business. Countries that are members of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and in cooperation with the Swiss Treasury.

One of the points - which Al-Rubaie stresses - is that Iraq should continue its legal and judicial efforts, in cooperation with all countries and their judicial bodies, to recover the money and its smugglers.

He told Al-Jazeera Net, "The Integrity Commission has managed to open 373 special files to recover the money, as well as recover accused and convicted persons outside the country since last September, and since the conference for the recovery of looted funds was held in Baghdad until the previous few days."

And whether this is just ink on paper, as is the case with many other measures related to corruption, Al-Rubaie acknowledges that the fight against corruption includes technical matters and new procedures, but he believes that Iraq faces a series of problems in this regard, including the presence of non-criminal “corruption acts”. So far, citing the money in Switzerland that has been stolen from public budgets and the people's food.

As a consequence, the head of the Al-Nahrain Foundation proposes to innovate or amend some laws, including legislating a law that allows those affected by corruption to claim compensation, in addition to amending laws to match the punishment with the size of the crime and not as it exists now, and that the sentence against those accused of stealing billions of dollars be in prison for a year or more. 2 years or 6 years suspended.

Among the steps that Al-Rubaie proposes, which he says contribute to the fight against corruption, is that the government, through the Stolen Funds Recovery Fund, directs these recovered funds to infrastructure projects in poor areas in order to integrate society in the anti-corruption process, and achieve positive results.

Al-Khidr considered that Iraq's penetration of the secrecy of international banks would allow him to know a large part of the smuggled money (Al-Jazeera)

Switzerland's reaction

And about the possibility of succeeding in following up the balances and accounts of fugitive officials or those accused of corruption and recovering the looted funds through his foreign relations, the political researcher Ahmed Al-Khidr answers by pointing out that Iraq’s legal penetration of the secrecy of international banks will allow his government to know a large part of the movement of looted and smuggled funds and legally return them to The country, which is believed to exist in international banks, whose system of operation is governed by maintaining the confidentiality and names of its depositors.

Regarding the expectations of Switzerland’s reaction to the Iraqi hack, and whether it will allow tracking the balances and accounts of those accused of corruption, Al-Khader believes that the judiciary should address the competent international authorities and provide them with the rulings issued by the internal courts regarding the conviction of most depositors of these looted funds, with the need for high coordination between the Integrity Commission The National Council, the Supreme Judicial Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, the political researcher praises, with optimism, the improved Iraqi international situation, and this in turn will facilitate the response of the governments of the countries in which the looted money was deposited, especially Switzerland.

He says: The Iraqi government should work on developing a legal road map in cooperation with international bodies to retrieve these funds.