The Federal Integrity Commission has brought the “Theft of the Century” file back to the forefront of attention, after new updates in the course of investigations revealed an expansion in the volume of embezzled funds and an increase in the number of parties associated with the case.
According to what was announced by the Parliamentary Integrity Committee, the latest data raised estimates of the funds involved in the file to about 8 trillion dinars, after previous estimates indicated only about 2.5 trillion dinars, which reflects the expansion of the scope of investigations and the development of the results of financial tracking inside and outside Iraq.
Committee member Talib Al-Baidhani said that efforts to recover the stolen funds are continuing in coordination between the Integrity Commission and government agencies, stressing that the recovery operations included part of the funds, while other amounts are still outside the country and are subject to legal and diplomatic procedures to recover them.
He stated that recent investigations linked about 30 people to the case, noting that recovering funds represents a parallel path to accounting operations, and aims to return public funds and strengthen anti-corruption measures.
He added that coordination between the Integrity Commission and the government, especially the Prime Minister's Office, represents a key factor in accelerating recovery operations, in addition to cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the real estate files and assets related to the case.
The roots of the “theft of the century” go back to the embezzlement of funds from tax deposits belonging to the General Tax Authority, which was revealed in 2022, and was linked to a number of defendants, most notably businessman Nour Zuhair Al-Muzaffar.
In November 2024, the Karkh Criminal Court issued prison sentences against a number of those convicted in the case, including Nour Zuhair, the director of the former Prime Minister’s Office, Raed Jouhi, and the former head of the Parliamentary Finance Committee, Haitham al-Jubouri.
