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IRAQ'S CORRUPTION
العربية
Cases

Qi Card / International Smart Card: IQD 231bn of duplicated pension payments for retirees abroad recovered (from 2017 to 2022)

In August 2022 the Integrity Commission said its investigation into pensions paid to retirees living abroad showed that Rafidain Bank had repeatedly paid the same pensions more than once into the system of the International Smart Card company (Qi Card) since 2017, without the company returning the accumulated sums; the Central Bank of Iraq froze the company's funds and IQD 231,352,535,563 was restored to the treasury. The company's founder had been arrested by Committee 29 in 2020 (see Committee 29 ("Abu Ragheef committee"): PM Kadhimi's special anti-corruption committee (from 2020 to 2022)).

Period
From 2017 to August 2022
Sector
Public payrollPension payments via electronic payment company
Kind of case
Criminal prosecution
Jurisdiction
Federal Iraq

How the money moved

Duplicate salary or pension transfers retained by a private payment intermediary for years without reconciliation.

What happened

Recovery of IQD 231bn (2022).

Open questions

  • Criminal liability of company officers; audit of other payroll flows via Qi Card.

People and companies

The table lists everyone this case names, with their legal status on the date shown. A status in this case does not carry over to any other case, and an accusation is not a conviction. How to read the status.
People and companies
NameRole in the caseLegal statusDetailAs of
International Smart Card (Qi Card)
الشركة العالمية للبطاقة الذكية
CompanyUnder investigationFunds frozen and IQD 231bn recovered (August 2022). The Wall Street Journal (31 May 2025) reports that Qi Card, about half of Iraq's card market, went from about $10 million a month in card transactions in early 2023 to more than $500 million a month by early 2025 and paid salaries to more than 200,000 militia members; officials told the paper that about half of the more than 100,000 Iraqi cards Mastercard blocked in March 2025 had been issued by International Smart Card, which said it no longer provides any services to the PMF. The report makes. No charge, court ruling, sanction or official finding is on record in the sources read.25 September 2026

Sources

These are the documents on which this case rests. Each quote is given in the language of the document.
  1. The Wall Street Journal (full text reprinted by To Vima)31 May 2025Press report (unnamed source)Tier C

    Needing Dollars, Iran-Backed Militias Turn to Visa and Mastercard (David S. Cloud)

    Iraq was a minor market for Visa and Mastercard a couple of years ago, generating just $50 million a month or less in cross-border transactions at the start of 2023. ... In recent days, Treasury formally asked the Iraqi central bank to block the more than 200,000 cards used by militia members due to fraud concerns.
    Original
  2. Al-Aalem Al-Jadeed (Integrity Commission statement)18 August 2022Press reportTier D

    النزاهة تعلن استعادة 231 مليار دينار

    مصرف الرافدين يقوم بتكرار دفع الرواتب الخاصَّة بالمتقاعدين أكثر من مرَّةٍ إلى منظومة الشركة
    Original

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