While visiting an Iraqi lawyer I heard him give this advice to a colleague of his: “Go to Beirut. The real work is there! ”
“Why Beirut?” I asked him.
He then explained to me that many Iraqi lawyers have moved to Beirut and have opened new offices in the city to help their compatriots recover their deposits in Lebanese banks that have declared bankruptcy.
The total of Iraqi funds blocked in Lebanon ranges between $ 18 and $ 30 billion, most of which belong to top-notch politicians. These include the names of former Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the daughter of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
They don’t talk about it for fear of exposing their corruption, but many people involved have had heart attacks or strokes as a result of this disaster. The money resulting from corruption “will not return to whoever paid it,” said Mudher Muhammad Saleh, a financial advisor to the Iraqi government. “Let them wipe their hands on the wall,” he added speaking in a debate on local TV.
Il Kurdistan
Ali Hama Saleh, a deputy from Iraqi Kurdistan, revealed that about $ 650 million of autonomous government funds were frozen in Lebanon. These are the revenues that come from the sale of oil in Cyprus but the government cannot use them: to get back into the accounts of the Kurdish executive, this amount would first have to be turned over to one of the accounts of the clients of the autonomous region, the Pakistani Murtaza al Khani.
These are some of the losses of the Kurdish regional government in Lebanese banks. According to the analysis report of the oil sector in the region drawn up by the economic consultancy firm Deloitte, 294 million dollars and 310 million euros would be stuck in Lebanese banks. And these amounts come solely from oil sales in the first quarter of 2021.
The Iraqi government’s activity has stalled for more than six months due to the dispute between the coalitions that drew in the elections. Furthermore, the Iraqi embassy in Beirut is unable to act alone, and therefore the burden falls on the lawyers.
Thus, Iraqi lawyers contact Lebanese lawyers, who in turn liaise with prominent bank officials to get back some of the blocked money, one drop at a time.
(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)