A former member of the Anti-Corruption Council, Saeed Yassin Musa, revealed, on Wednesday, that there are shell companies in Iraq that practice money laundering, received contract money and smuggled abroad.
Moussa said in a televised interview, “The file of fictitious companies was opened in 2015 and it is assumed that these companies are registered and pay taxes and fees in addition to social security for workers.”
He added, “These fictitious companies acquire a set of contracts and then cancel themselves after taking a certain part of the money and flee outside Iraq, and there must be control by the Ministry of Commerce, but there is weakness in control and performance and the lack of coordination between the ministry and customs.”
Moussa continued, “Fake companies practice money laundering and harm the Iraqi economy by taking hard currency out of Iraq,” noting that “some of them have political influence that helps them by excluding taxes, and we need a revolution in the administrative and legal sides to end the fictitious companies.”
MP Hussein Al-Uqabi confirmed, last March, that fake companies steal Iraqi money without supervision, indicating that these companies give fictional profits, sometimes reaching 80%.
Al-Aqabi said in a statement that “there are a number of fictitious companies in Iraq that claim to invest money in return for attractive profit returns, sometimes reaching 80%.”
“These companies adopt the marketing mechanism by using the hierarchical system to invest victims’ money by involving the victim, who brings in another number of victims, and his promised profitability increases by increasing the number of clients he brings,” Al-Uqabi added.
Al-Uqabi pointed out that “one of these companies as an example only, which is the (UnicFinance) company, indicates in its initial information that it is a fake company without a clear address and headquarters, and without registering it in the official international institutions accredited, as this company claims that it operates in the American market and gives its subscribers up to 80%, while specialists confirm that the profits of the American market do not exceed 8-10% at best, so how can it give its subscribers such an imaginary percentage of profits. ”
He explained that, “since the date of its website was established in August 2016, it is a newly established company and claims to be registered in (the well-known large security company McAfee). It is known that McAfee is a company that protects websites from hacking and has nothing to do with financial and investment work. International organizations – such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the Swiss Supervisory Authority – are suspicious companies. ”
Al-Uqabi stressed that, according to observers, approximately 90% of the clients or victims of this company are Iraqis, with great regret, and huge sums of money have been withdrawn from them amid the complete absence of the role of the Iraqi authorities.
Al-Uqabi pointed out that “what is surprising and surprising is that these suspicious transactions are taking place in Iraq in light of weak follow-up of government institutions concerned with the economic and financial file, with the evidence of great danger to the national economy and to Iraqis who previously suffered from fake companies such as (SAMCO) and others.”
Al-Uqabi stated that, “Out of caution, we call for strengthening regulatory measures by government financial institutions such as the Central Bank, following up on the activities of these companies and activating Iraqi laws in protecting consumers and preventing the theft of Iraqi funds, which should be invested within its proper framework with guaranteed projects that provide additional job opportunities in the private sector and reduce High employment rates. ”
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