The Iraqi judiciary takes measures against 13 private banks, following violations of the currency auction
Shafaq News / The Rusafa Investigation Court, which is competent to look into issues of integrity, money laundering and economic crime, decided on Thursday to take legal measures against thirteen banks for violations of entering the currency auction without submitting customs permits that support the entry of goods, tax accounting, and suspicions of falsifying documents related to this.
The Media Center of the Supreme Judicial Council stated in a statement today that the aforementioned court decided to bring in the authorized directors of the violating banks due to their breach of the due diligence procedures imposed by the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Law No. (39) of 2015.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Council directed uncles issued by it to all investigation courts to take legal measures against everyone who caused damage to the national economy, whether from foreign currency dealers or monopolistic merchants of goods, food commodities and essential commodities that people need daily.
In a statement, the Council requested the Ministry of the Interior to instruct the competent police directorates to conduct inspection tours of wholesale stores and places of sale of foreign currency to catch those who violate the law.
The statement noted that the investigation court specialized in combating money laundering began several days ago to conduct an investigation regarding the auction of selling foreign currency and violations of the law by some private banks to participate in the auction of selling foreign currency.
The competent judge stated that the investigation had reached advanced stages and revealed illegal operations, fraud and fraud to participate in the auction of selling currency and smuggling foreign currency outside the country.
These uncles come after the Central Bank of Iraq decided to reduce the dinar against the foreign currency, especially the dollar, which led to an increase in imported goods and commodities, especially food, medicine and other necessities of life.
The Ministry of the Interior had deployed detachments to combat economic crime in the markets to monitor prices and prevent manipulation of them, while stressing that some merchants would not allow monopoly of materials.
“The role of the Ministry of the Interior is limited to monitoring the prices set by the relevant authorities,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Major General Khaled Al-Muhanna, in statements reported by official government media, explaining that it “will not allow monopolization of materials.”
He added that “the monitoring process is through the Economic Crime Control Directorate of the Ministry of Interior.”
And Interior Minister Othman Al-Ghanimi had confirmed earlier, that detachments were moved in all governorates to implement the law against those trying to tamper with prices, taking advantage of the crisis.