Iraq's Corruption
العربيةMenu
The Record

Timeline

This page lists the dated events on the site from 2003 to 2026, in the order in which they happened. Each event comes from one of the site's datasets and leads to its record: the start of a case, a sanction or a ban, a rule issued by the Central Bank, or a change in the legal status of a person or a company.

Each date is given only as precisely as the source gives it. It may be a day, a month or only a year.

The timeline holds 362 dated events: 98 case beginnings, 48 sanctions and enforcement actions, 82 Central Bank rules, 132 changes in the legal status of people and companies and 2 on how the new financial system was set up.

Kind of event
All 139Cases 32Sanctions and enforcement 16Central Bank rules 61Changes in legal status 30
Period
All years 98From 2003 to 2009 31From 2010 to 2019 32From 2020 to 2026 35

2010

  1. 2010Case begins
    Leighton Offshore / Iraq Crude Oil Export pipelines: bribes via Unaoil (Australian prosecutions, from 2010 to 2026)
  2. 2010Case begins
    Warka Bank: depositor run, delisting and Central Bank custodianship (from 2010 to 2013)

2011

  1. 2011Case begins
    Petrofac: failure to prevent bribery to win oil contracts in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE (UK SFO, from 2011 to 2021)
  2. 2011Case begins
    Ericsson's Iraq payments (from 2011 to 2019): internal probe, possible payments to ISIS and Swedish criminal investigation
  3. March 2011Case begins
    Korek Telecom: ICC arbitration finding fraud and corruption against Korek and Sirwan Barzani, and the regulator's 2026 asset seizure
  4. June 2011Case begins
    Trade Bank of Iraq: raid, arrest warrant for its president and disputed allegations (2011)
  5. July 2011Case begins
    Electricity Minister Raad Shallal dismissed over $1.7bn contracts with a non-existent Canadian firm and a bankrupt German firm (2011)

2012

  1. 2012Case begins
    Parliamentary finance committee (Ahmad Chalabi) dossier: Al-Huda Bank and forged import documents in the dollar auction (from 2012 to 2015)
  2. July 2012Case begins
    Elaf Islamic Bank: US CISADA sanctions for facilitating Iranian bank transactions, and 2013 delisting
  3. October 2012Case begins
    Prosecution of Central Bank governor Sinan al-Shabibi and deputy Mudhir Salih over the dollar auction (from 2012 to 2015)
  4. October 2012Case begins
    The 2012 Russian arms package (about $4.2bn) and alleged commissions

2014

  1. 2014Case begins
    Kurdistan Region independent oil sales: revenue opacity, prepayment debts and funds frozen in Lebanon (from 2014 to 2023)
  2. 2014Case begins
    "Ghost soldiers": 50,000 fictitious names on the army payroll (Abadi, November 2014)
  3. 2014Case begins
    Funds for displaced persons: the Higher Committee for Relief and Sheltering of the Displaced (from 2014 to 2023)
  4. 2014Case begins
    Iraq v. Turkey ICC arbitration: $1.47bn award over Turkey's unauthorised transit of Kurdistan Region crude through the Ceyhan pipeline (from 2014 to 2018)
  5. 2014Case begins
    Former ministers, governors and officials sentenced, from 2024 to 2026 (Integrity Commission statements)

2015

  1. 2015Case begins
    Ghost employees, double salaries and pension fraud in the public payroll (from 2015 to 2021)
  2. 2015Case begins
    Alleged kickback demands in UNDP's Funding Facility for Stabilization reconstruction projects (reported January 2024)

2016

  1. August 2016Case begins
    Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi's 2016 accusations of extortion by the Speaker and MPs, and his dismissal

2017

  1. 2017Case begins
    Nineveh governor Nawfal al-Akoub: reconstruction and displaced-persons funds (from 2017 to 2019)
  2. 2017Case begins
    Qi Card / International Smart Card: IQD 231bn of duplicated pension payments for retirees abroad recovered (from 2017 to 2022)
  3. August 2017Case begins
    Iraqi Airways: chairman arrested taking a bribe (2017), contract investigations (2024) and IQD 19bn recovered (2026)
  4. August 2017Case begins
    August 2017: arrest warrants and a conviction topple the governors of Salah al-Din, Basra and Anbar
  5. November 2017Case begins
    Qi Card: Pension Fund and Rafidain Bank money lent through Qi Card, IQD 5.91 trillion to about 847,000 borrowers (from 2017 to 2021)

2018

  1. 2018Case begins
    Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadly: US designation for diverting oil to Iran-linked networks and Iraqi illicit-enrichment conviction (2026)
  2. 2018Case begins
    PMF "ghost fighters": payroll-inflation allegations and the unsolved killing of the force's finance chief
  3. March 2018Case begins
    Former Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi: arrest warrants and sentences in absentia (from 2018 to 2022)
  4. May 2018Case begins
    Al-Bilad Islamic Bank and its owner Aras Habib Kareem: US terrorism-finance designation for moving IRGC-Qods Force funds through Iraq's banking system (2018)
  5. October 2018Case begins
    Luay al-Khateeb: suspended sentence over an $808m Baghdad power-station contract (2022)
  6. December 2018Case begins
    Kirkuk governor Rakan al-Jubouri: warrants, a travel ban, and a 2025 arrest and bail (from 2018 to 2025)

2019

  1. 2019Case begins
    IQD 926bn (about $700m) embezzled at branches of Rasheed Bank and the Agricultural Cooperative Bank (announced June 2022)
  2. July 2019Case begins
    US Global Magnitsky corruption designations of Iraqi figures: two ex-governors (July 2019) and Khamis al-Khanjar (Dec 2019)
Download:timeline.csv.xlsxrules_timeline.csv.xlsxenforcement.csv.xlsx