$2.5 BILLION Stolen, $125 Million Recovered Arrest Warrants for Theft of Century

Interpol was also notified of the warrants for help in arresting the four former top government officials.

On 15 August, RT reported that the Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq issued arrest warrants for former finance minister Ali Allawi and three close associates of former prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

RT Arabic obtained copies of the arrest warrants, which included Allawi as Minister of Finance of the Kadhimi government and Raed Jouhi as Kadhimi's Director and head of the intelligence service.

In addition to Ahmed Nejad, the former prime minister's personal secretary, an arrest warrant was issued for Mashraq Abbas, Kadhimi's close friend and special political adviser.

As a result of the "heist of the century" incident, which sparked controversy in Iraq recently, these arrest warrants have been issued.

According to the Integrity Commission, 260 cheques were used to withdraw about $2.5 billion from Rafidain Bank. The funds were distributed among seven private companies. Five of these companies were newly formed and had no tax records. Two of these companies were created "to complete the theft."

Iraq has recovered approximately $125 million of the stolen funds, which are believed to have been laundered mainly in real estate deals.

All four defendants live outside Iraq and hold US or British citizenship, so the arrest warrants were also sent to Interpol.

Haider Hanoun, head of Iraq's Integrity Commission, said Interpol had issued "red notices" for the men and called on the US and UK authorities to help extradite them.

Hanoun called the theft of tax deposits "the largest corruption case discovered to date," referring to it as "a crime of corruption and treason."

Hanoun verified the commission was in the last steps of arresting extra ex-Iraqi administrators charged with getting involved in taking away tax funds, containing Hamdiya al-Jaf, erstwhile head of the Commercial Bank of Iraq, Nawras Abdel Razzaq, previous director general of the Ministry of Health, and Mohammad Hadi, former director of Hilla's municipality. Businessman Ahmad al-Sarraf, deemed a leading suspect for thievery, was apprehended by Iraqi officials on 3 August after being expelled from Jordan.