At a Glance

• The Iraqi Commission of Integrity and the Falcons Intelligence Cell dismantled a nine-member corruption ring led by a local real estate director.
• The network illicitly acquired over 170 properties across Baghdad and Babylon by registering state-owned lands under proxies to evade financial audits.
• A joint task force recovered hidden case records that suspects attempted to destroy by burying them in weeds and dumping them into the Hilla River.

The Iraqi Commission of Integrity has dismantled a corruption network led by a local real estate director that concealed the illicit ownership of over 170 properties in Baghdad and Babylon valued at tens of billions of dinars.

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Key Statements and Focus Area

• The Commission of Integrity stated that the properties “were registered under the names of other individuals, including several relatives and friends of the suspects, in an attempt to hide their true ownership, mislead regulatory authorities regarding the size and sources of their wealth, and prevent the discovery of illicit inflation of assets.”
• “The Commission announced that the head of the network and its remaining members have been taken down and the arrest warrants issued against them have been executed,” the statement confirmed.

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According to a Commission of Integrity statement issued Tuesday, an investigation by its Babylon office conducted alongside the Falcons Intelligence Cell, an elite counter-terrorism force, exposed a nine-member corruption network and led to the arrest of all its elements, including the ringleader.

The Commission noted that the network's ringleader currently serves as the Director of the Abi Gharaq Real Estate Registration Directorate and previously directed the Mansour and Babylon registration branches.

The network allegedly purchased over 170 properties across Baghdad and Babylon, registering them under relatives' and friends' names to evade financial auditing before attempting to destroy records linked to state-owned and agricultural lands.

Based on the investigative findings, the Babylon Integrity Investigation Court issued arrest warrants for the nine suspects under Articles 289 and 298 of the Penal Code and ordered the immediate seizure of all related case files.

Following reports that the suspects were attempting to destroy the documents, the Commission of Integrity teamed up with the Falcons Intelligence Cell to track down and recover the hidden records.

Investigators recovered a portion of the hidden records from a bag buried in weeds, while witness testimonies revealed further attempts to destroy evidence by dumping documents into the Hilla River to hide the illicit property registrations.

The task force quickly deployed to the site, successfully locating the hidden records along the banks of the Hilla River and retrieving a portion of the documents directly from the water.

Witness testimonies detailed the network's illicit registration methods, revealing that the primary suspect, the Director of Abi Gharaq Real Estate Registration, also owns two commercial buildings in central Hilla.

Following the execution of the arrest warrants, the Commission finalized formal seizure reports for the evidence, prompting the investigating judge to finalize proceedings under Article 19/2 of the Commission of Integrity and Illicit Gains Law No. 30 of 2011, as amended.

FYI

This operation is part of an intensifying nationwide anti-corruption sweep spearheaded by the Federal Commission of Integrity and the Iraqi judiciary aimed at reclaiming state assets and curbing public sector fraud. 

Land registration and municipality offices in Iraq have historically been identified as high-risk sectors for illicit wealth accumulation, asset inflation, and the illegal transfer of state-owned properties 

In response, Iraqi authorities have increasingly deployed joint task forces combining judicial oversight with elite tactical intelligence units to penetrate these networks, prevent the destruction of physical records, and execute high-profile arrests.

In a series of recent cases, the Commission of Integrity successfully blocked an illegal public auction involving a massive 136-dunam property overseen by the State Real Estate Office in the Anbar Governorate.

Separately, the Supreme Judicial Council announced yesterday that the Al-Rusafa Investigation Court recovered 51 billion Iraqi dinars on behalf of the state-owned Rafidain Bank following intensive corruption investigations.

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