A security expert and an Iraqi writer, commenting on “Sky News Arabia”, evaluate this step now, and what hinders the completion of greater and faster steps in the file of combating public money smuggling, from which the Iraqi suffers remarkably.
In statements to the Iraqi News Agency, “INA”, on Sunday, the head of the Border Crossings Authority, Major General Omar Al-Waeli, said that “painful blows were dealt” to money smugglers outside Iraq; Where the commission seized “many counterfeit money, and arrested counterfeiters and counterfeiters of the Iraqi currency.”
We also “prevented the smuggling of money of all kinds, despite the fraudulent operations carried out by the weak-minded, and we continue to do so with vigor to pursue and strike the manipulators of the Iraqi economy, and for everyone who begged himself to smuggle money out of Iraq.”
Al-Waeli did not mention figures for the seized amounts, whether fake or intended for smuggling.
turning point
The Iraqi writer, Ali Al-Baydar, describes these recent seizures as “a turning point in the file of money smuggling, and the follow-up of money laundering operations and corruption deals rampant in Iraq during the last stage.”
At the same time, he believes that there are bigger steps expected, but they are facing disruption, adding with examples:
- Until now, the procedures still do not rise to the required level, despite the will to address the crisis. There is a need to lift the political cover for some of the parties that transfer or transfer funds abroad.
- It is also necessary to involve the security institutions and the National Intelligence Service in the fight against money laundering. Which will achieve greater leaps.
- These security efforts are required to be intensified because smuggling operations are not done through money laundering or circumvention of procedures, but by manually transferring money, according to a new concept that has become commonplace in the Iraqi economy, which is the “black transfer”.
- This is also considered a turning point in the smuggling methods used by some armed groups, with breaches in security apparatuses luring some individuals with millions of dollars.
The dilemma of informal outlets
About the current dollar crisis, the security and strategic expert, Mokhaled Hazem Al-Darb, says that since it began to smell, the Ministry of Interior has been monitoring currency speculators, and the parallel market that deals with unreal numbers, and gives an unreal picture of the exchange rate, in addition to the dollar monopoly.
As for the smuggling of the dollar, it does not take place through the border crossings in all cases, but rather through banks and banks that have credit outside Iraq, and the liquid money that is smuggled from unofficial outlets, north, south and east, amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Iraqi dinar recorded a significant decline against the dollar, reaching 1,570 dinars against the dollar, and increased pressure on the dinar. The US Treasury imposed a ban on 14 Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars on suspicion of money laundering and transferring funds to Iran, according to what was announced July 19.
And according to the statements of the head of the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Al-Alaq, to the Iraqi News Agency, last Wednesday, that one of the reasons for the decline in front of the dollar is that traders obtain hard currency from the black market, and that speculators spread rumors, and create a crisis that leads to an increase in the price.
At the same time, Al-Alaq noted that the Central Bank continues to provide dollars at the official rate of 1,320 dinars to the dollar for all legitimate transactions, including transfers and credits for various imports.
#Iraq #striking #money #smugglers #smuggling #continue #bleed