The headquarters of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Justice announced on Saturday, July 4, 2026, the successful repatriation of over twenty-five million dollars in stolen state funds that had been illicitly smuggled out of the country over the past two years.
Ministry officials emphasized that this milestone is part of a broader, aggressive asset-recovery campaign aimed at executing domestic judicial rulings abroad and reclaiming embezzled wealth, frozen bank accounts, and luxury real estate holdings scattered across multiple foreign jurisdictions.
According to an official briefing provided to the Iraqi News Agency by Ministry spokesperson Ahmad Laibi, these complex asset-tracking operations are being executed in close institutional synchronization with the Federal Commission of Integrity and the Iraq Fund for Asset Recovery.
The legal strategies deployed rely heavily on international treaties, primarily the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which has allowed Iraqi legal teams to win several landmark international lawsuits. These courtroom victories not only facilitated the liquidation and return of cash reserves but also successfully lifted historical attachment orders and legal freezes on sovereign Iraqi assets held overseas.
The ongoing recovery apparatus extends far beyond liquid cash to target high-value real estate investments and hidden corporate equities purchased by former officials and fugitive convicts using siphoned public funds. The Ministry of Justice is actively enforcing final, non-appealable Iraqi criminal verdicts within foreign courts by working through formal diplomatic channels and retaining specialized international law firms.
Government advisors confirmed that numerous parallel files involving secret bank accounts and premium properties in several regional and Western capitals remain under active investigation, reiterating that enforcement operations will continue unabated until all smuggled state assets are returned to the national treasury.