Iraq Detains Nearly 50 Officials, Seizing $120 Million in Cash and Gold

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 13

Baghdad's 28 June sweep locked down the Green Zone from within, detaining nearly 50 people — including about a dozen MPs and senior officials — and seizing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, gold and property.
Investigators traced the crackdown to election-spending irregularities and confessions after the 30 May arrest of deputy oil minister Adnan al-Jumaili, whose case alone yielded 127 billion dinars, $24 million, 375kg of gold and dozens of properties.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took office in May, has cast the operation as an unprecedented assault on the financial networks of parties and militias, not another symbolic anti-graft campaign.
Iraq's fiscal strain after oil exports were largely halted by the US-Israeli war on Iran has raised the stakes, while officials say US backing and a more assertive judiciary helped drive a case that hits major politicians without toppling the post-2003 system.