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Former Finance Minister Ali Allawi issues a statement regarding the arrest warrant and seizing his money 2023.03.13 - 20:37 Baghdad - Nas Former Finance Minister Ali Allawi responded, on Monday, to the arrest warrants issued against him and the seizure of his movable and immovable funds. Allawi said in a lengthy statement, which “NAS” received a copy of, (March 13, 2023), “Last week, a series of judicial orders were issued against me, including the seizure of my movable and immovable funds, and an arrest and investigation order, and these procedures were related to the so-called theft of the century.” The charge against me was specifically facilitating the seizure of tax secretariat amounts. I do not have detailed information on what these accusations are based on, but I have been informed that this information is kept confidential. He added, “I initially received this news through social media, and not from any official source, and it turned out that the order to seize my money was sent by the Supreme Judicial Council to the Ministry of Finance on February 2, 2023, that is, about a month before I heard about it on social media. Likewise, the arrest warrant was not delivered to my home in Baghdad or any other address belonging to me, but it was in the form of a post on the Integrity Commission's website. He continued, "In fact, I find these procedures shocking, and call into question my integrity, my years of service in Iraq, and for the benefit of the Iraqi people, and I completely and absolutely reject these baseless accusations." And between, "When I assumed the duties of the Ministry of Finance, our financial conditions were miserable with the depletion of the treasury, the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and the collapse of oil prices. We succeeded in overcoming these very difficult challenges, we paid the risk of default on debt payments, we were able to guarantee the payment of salaries, and we started the reform process embodied in the white paper. In "The end of Prime Minister Al-Kazemi's term, foreign exchange reserves approached $100 billion, and the treasury had a surplus account of more than $25 billion. We left the new government with very strong financial conditions to supplement the state budget." He pointed out, "I worked hard and sincerely in my position as Minister of Finance to obstruct and expose corrupt practices. In the Ministry of Finance, I fully cooperated with the Integrity Commission, and did not hesitate to provide them with sensitive files when there was suspicion of corruption on them." He added, “More importantly, I prevented a contract that would have imposed unjustifiably high costs of hundreds of millions of dollars on the clients of the largest state bank. I had kick-started the automation of customs management by contracting with a United Nations agency for a world-renowned customs automation system. "I was ahead of the curve in developing tender requirements to automate the tax authority and tax system, in collaboration with the World Bank. When fully implemented, this automation would control corruption." He pointed out, "I worked on a completely new, modern set of internal regulations for government banks, especially Al-Rafidain, which, if implemented, would raise our banking sector to international standards, and one of the priorities was the digitization of banks. These two measures would have significantly reduced the incidence of corruption in the country." The banking sector". And between, “With regard to the theft of the century, I took a number of measures in October and November 2021, when there were indications of breaches in the tax authority.” And he continued, “In particular, on November 4, 2021, I issued a ministerial order to the Director General of the Tax Authority preventing them from issuing any tax refund from the trust account without the approval of the Minister’s office, and it became clear after that that the Director General of the Tax Authority did not adhere to the ministerial directive. With these orders, the vast majority of thefts would not have taken place." He said, "When I joined the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, I was 72 years old. I left another world of writing and lecturing to serve my country at this advanced age. I made it clear that I was not interested in politics and that my focus would be exclusively on laying the groundwork for reforming the Iraqi economy, and she was a warrior." Corruption is an essential part of this plan." And between, "In my resignation statement on August 16, 2022, from the position of Minister of Finance, I frankly addressed my concern about the extent of corruption in the country, its threat to Iraq as a state and the damage caused to its effectiveness in providing security and prosperity to the Iraqi people over the past years." He pointed out, "After I left the position, the Integrity Commission contacted me to work to provide them with information related to the issues I raised in my resignation statement. I informed them that I was outside the country and did not hear from them until two months later. I informed them of my complete readiness to communicate with them and help them, but again, there was no answer." official from them. He continued, "Separately, I had appeared for three hours before the Parliamentary Subcommittee to Investigate the Theft of the Century on a televised call," noting, "I have always acted with honesty and sincerity and have never shirked my responsibility to fully cooperate with the official authorities. However, I have "This amazing turn of events happened as I am now accused of the very crimes I spent years exposing and fighting. These formal charges were preceded by a torrent of leaks against me on social media." He noted, "This was followed by an unprecedented appearance on television by the investigating judge in the case where he pointed the finger at me by describing me in detail without actually naming me. This was before any charge was brought against me." “Therefore, I can only think that there were serious mistakes in the investigation process, or that I am a scapegoat for a charge of which I am completely innocent, intended to cover up the real thieves. I will never accept these false accusations, and I will fight to show that these accusations are outrageous.” I will dedicate the remainder of my life to exposing the ramifications of the robbery of the century, from its planners, perpetrators, accomplices and beneficiaries to those who systematically covered up this crime and leveled an outrageous accusation on a completely innocent party, and I will help expose them and bring them to justice.. God is witness to what I say.” He continued, "Under these circumstances, it will be difficult to see how conditions for a fair trial can be met in Iraq. The scope, scale and complexity of the theft of the century and its political dimensions make it necessary to consider the formation of an international tribunal to investigate the matter." And he added, "As a first step, I will soon issue a detailed file of all the steps and measures we have taken in the Ministry of Finance to prevent abuses in the Tax Authority. I will also respond to the final report of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on theft of the century, especially the items related to my decisions in the Ministry in this regard."