Registers
The registers list people by the post they held, the bank they owned or ran, the licence they received or the sanctions decision taken against them. Each entry links to the sources it rests on. These are official lists, company filings, licences, press reports and, for office holders, published lists of cabinets. There are 4 registers of people. The first covers everyone who has held cabinet-level office since 2003. The second covers the owners and managers of the banks that could buy dollars at the Central Bank's window, the daily sale at which the Central Bank of Iraq sells dollars to banks. The third covers the holders of investment licences for housing projects, and the fourth covers the sanctions decisions taken by United States authorities for conduct in Iraq. Further registers, lower on this page, cover state land and assets: the investment licences, the decisions of the Supreme Committee for Reconstruction and Investment, and the Ministry of Industry.
How to read the registers
A place in a register records a public office, an ownership stake, a licence or a sanctions decision. It is not an allegation. Next to each name is the exact legal status. In the registers of office holders and of bank owners the status comes from the encyclopedia's record of the name, where it holds one, for example a conviction, a sanctions designation or a charge. Otherwise the status reads “Not charged as of the date of writing”. The sanctions register shows whether each decision is still in force. The housing register gives the status of each entry as its sources report it.
What each register holds
Cabinet-level office holders since 2003
This register lists the members of the Governing Council and its ministers. It also lists every prime minister, deputy prime minister, minister and minister of state, from the Allawi interim government to the al-Zaidi government, together with the governors of the Central Bank and the heads of the Integrity Commission and the Board of Supreme Audit. Each entry gives the dates of the term and its sources.
432 entries for 294 people.Entries with the status “Not charged as of the date of writing”: 411.Owners and managers of the banks
This register lists the chairmen, vice-chairmen, managing directors, board members and shareholders of the banks that could buy dollars at the Central Bank's window, the daily sale at which the Central Bank of Iraq sells dollars to banks. The names come from the pages of the Iraq Securities Commission, from the Central Bank of Iraq's lists of banks, from the banks' own reports and websites, and from press reports. The action that regulators took against a bank is shown under the bank's name. It is not the legal status of the person.
616 entries at 72 banks.Entries with the status “Not charged as of the date of writing”: 597.Housing investment licences
An investment licence is the permit, issued by an investment commission, that allows a company or a person to carry out a project. This register records who received a licence for a housing project, where the project is, how much land and money it involves, and what official bodies such as the Board of Supreme Audit or the investment commissions later found. Where an entry rests on a press report, the entry says so. Coverage differs from one province to another, because some commissions publish their licences and others do not.
165 licences held by 87 named licensees.Licensee not named: 32 entries.Entries naming a licensee with the status “Not charged as of the date of writing”: 130.Sanctions decisions
This register lists the sanctions decisions that United States authorities have taken against Iraqi persons, Iraqi armed groups and others for conduct in Iraq. The authorities are the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury, the US State Department and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Treasury. It also lists the special measures that FinCEN imposed under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. A special measure is not a sanctions designation. Each entry gives the reason in the words of the authority that took the decision. A sanctions designation is an official act, not a court judgment. Decisions that removed a name from a list are included.
374 decisions, of which 12 are removals from a list.
State land and assets
Investment licences
Every licence in the lists of the National Investment Commission and the Baghdad commission: the project, the licensee, the land and who holds it, the stated cost and the state of the work.
768 licences held by 682 licensees.The Supreme Committee's decisions
Every decision of the Supreme Committee for Reconstruction and Investment that was found in official statements from 2023 to 2026: the project, the land, the beneficiary where one is named, the terms and what happened afterwards.
80 decisions. A private beneficiary is named in 8.The Ministry of Industry
Industrial cities, land allocations and partnership contracts for state factories found in official statements and audit reports, with the ministers and directors-general who held office and the exact legal status of each.
72 projects and contracts, 41 officials.
Still to come
- Directors-general and deputy ministers.
- Leaders of parties and armed groups, including those not designated by the United States.
- Sanctions decisions of the United Kingdom and the European Union.
- The licence lists of the other provincial investment commissions. They will be added to the register of investment licences as they are obtained.
What the registers do not mean
A name in a register does not by itself mean that the person is accused of anything. The entry records a post, a stake, a licence or an official decision. Where an authority has made an accusation, the entry gives it in that authority's words. The encyclopedia does not call anyone a criminal unless a court has convicted that person.