"Citigroup is first US bank to open Baghdad office" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press, June 25, 2013
BAGHDAD — Citigroup Inc. is set to become the first American bank to open an office of its own in Baghdad, highlighting financial firms’ growing interest in Iraq a decade after the US-led 2003 invasion.
In addition to serving Israeli hegemony and ensuring Iraqi oil is bought in dollars, this was another goal of the invasion. I wonder when they will start slicing and bundling Iraqi mortgages to sell to investors.
Executives say the representative office that Citi has received preliminary approval for will help support its corporate customers in Iraq and act as a liaison for companies looking to do business there.
Maybe that is what is behind the protests.
British bank Standard Chartered is also making a push in Iraq.
‘‘Essentially what we are doing is following our clients,’’ said Mayank Malik, Citi’s chief executive for Jordan and Iraq. ‘‘We see this as a giant waking up.”
Iraq has struggled to attract interest from Western companies outside of the oil sector in the 10 years since US-led forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Security and political instability remain major concerns. Even so, foreign banks see opportunities as Iraq’s economy opens up on the back of an oil boom.
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I gue$$ the Iraqis might need foreign bankers:
"Iraq accuses top central bank figure of financial crimes; Charges against economist are called political" by Sinan Salaheddin | Associated Press, October 19, 2012
BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have issued arrest warrants for the longtime governor of the central bank following allegations of financial wrongdoing, the country’s judiciary said Thursday.
The allegations against Sinan al-Shabibi, who has led the bank since 2003, surfaced earlier this week while he was out of the country on official business. The charges are seen by government critics as an attempt to sideline the politically independent economist, and have been blasted as politically motivated by Shabibi’s defense team.
Wow, the U.S. installed a central bank as soon as they got there.
Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said that 15 bank officials are being sought along with Shabibi. He did not name the other officials or say what specific charges they face. Bayrkdar did not say when the warrants were issued.
Repeated efforts to contact the Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for carrying out the arrests, were unsuccessful.
Lawyer Waleed Mohammed al-Shabibi, a relative of the bank governor who is on his legal team, said he is not aware of any arrest warrants and does not know what charges they include.
The attorney earlier this week criticized the allegations as politically motivated. The government denies the charge.
In 2011, Iraq’s Supreme Court ruled that the central bank and other previously independent bodies should be put under supervision of the Cabinet rather than parliament because their rulings are executive in nature.
The decision was widely criticized as putting the nonpartisan nature of these bodies at risk. Among the critics was Shabibi himself, who considered it a threat to the country’s assets abroad.
‘‘Even if concerns that the move against Shabibi is politically motivated prove unfounded, Maliki’s opponents will be wary that the prime minister could seize the opportunity to exert greater control over the [central bank],’’ said Jamie Ingram, a Middle East analyst at IHS Global Insight in London.
No wonder Iraq is being beaten to death with Al-CIA-Duh violence.
The charges were raised by a special parliamentary panel formed to investigate the bank. They surfaced while Shabibi was at an International Monetary Fund meeting in Tokyo. He is now believed to be in Europe, where it might be hard for the government to arrest him.
Europe is a criminal banker's safe haven?
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"Iraqi audit indicates money laundering, US says; Up to $800m sent out weekly, inspectors report" by Adam Schreck | Associated Press, October 31, 2012
BAGHDAD — Iraqi auditors believe as much as $800 million in US dollars is being sent out of the country illegally each week, draining it of hard currency, according to a report by American inspectors released Tuesday.
Trick or treat!?!?
The findings point to widespread money laundering and could focus further attention on oversight at Iraq’s central bank, which is at the heart of an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing involving its former governor and other top officials.
The US special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction said in a report that auditors in Baghdad fear up to 80 percent of an estimated $1 billion leaving the country weekly lacks proper documentation.
The American watchdog said Iraq’s top auditor, Abdul-Basit Turki, disclosed the findings about the extent of the alleged money laundering to American officials last month.
Turki also raised concerns about ‘‘what he called a triangle of sectarianism, corruption, and violence, in which each element feeds off the others in a dynamic that threatens the well-being of the state,’’ according to the special inspector general report.
Turki’s office, the Board of Supreme Audit, recently carried out an investigation into Iraq’s central bank and daily auctions it holds to exchange Iraqi dinars for dollars.
Commercial banks sell their dinars to the central bank and then pass on the dollars they receive to customers for a fee.
THAT is why IRAQIS are in the streets!
Those customers are supposed to provide documentation to the banks before transferring the dollars abroad, but Iraqi auditors have found that most of the transactions are based on fraudulent paperwork, according to the report.
Which reminds me: wait until the foreclosures start coming.
A spokesman for the Iraqi audit board, Imad Ismail, acknowledged that a meeting was held with American officials in recent weeks, but said he did not immediately have details about the audit. Turki was not available for comment.
Earlier this year, Mudhhir Mohammed Salih, deputy central bank governor, warned that Iraq had seen a sharp increase in demand for US dollars it sells. He blamed the spike on Iraqi traders reselling the greenbacks to customers in Iran, which is being squeezed by US and international sanctions, and in civil war-wracked Syria.
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: US Lost Iraq War
I was told we won.
The American report’s release comes two weeks after the longtime governor of Iraq’s central bank was removed from office after he and other bank officials were targeted in an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing....
Specific details about the allegations against the ousted bank governor, Sinan al-Shabibi, have not been made clear....
Al-Shabibi is considered to be a politically independent economist — a point the report highlighted by noting that he ‘‘is widely viewed as personally honest and professionally effective.’’
And since he was at an IMF meeting it mans he was one of their men.
The allegations against him have raised concerns of political interference in the bank. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq has tried to distance himself from suggestions that the case is politically motivated, saying his administration was not behind the investigation that led to the arrest warrants....
He knows what happens when you go against banks.
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