ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - US Republican Congressman Joe Wilson renewed his call on the Trump administration on Sunday to sanction Iraq’s largest state-owned financial institution, Rafidain Bank, accusing it of "funding the Iranian regime."
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should “look into Iranian puppets which openly robbed Rafidain bank of $2.5 billion all while US taxpayer dollars go to Iraq’s central bank," Wilson said, referring to the Heist of the Century corruption scandal.
The Heist of the Century, the largest corruption scandal in Iraq’s modern history, involves the embezzlement of $2.5 billion from tax funds between September 2021 and August 2022, facilitated by 247 checks issued by five companies. The case was brought to public attention following an investigation by the Iraqi finance ministry in October 2022.
Congressman Wilson slammed the US Treasury Department for funding "the Iranian regime and Badr Corps," while showing certainty that "Trump will fix it.”
The Badr Organization is a pro-Iran militia group led by Hadi al-Amiri.
Wilson’s comments came in a repost of a tweet by billionaire Elon Musk, who strongly criticized the US Treasury for approving “payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups,” after he and his team were given access to the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system.
“They literally never denied a payment in their entire career,” Musk said. “Not even once.”
Musk, who chairs DOGE, has been tasked by Trump to identify fraud and waste in the government.
The Republican Congressman also called on the DOGE to conduct “an audit of how many taxpayer dollars go to Iranian-regime backed terrorist militias?”
Last week, the Republican Congressman had once again accused Rafidain Bank of being “a tool for laundering money for Iran and its allies to access US dollars.”
"Under Biden and Brett McGurk, the US treasury allowed Rafidain Bank, the largest in Iraq, to become the money laundering machine for the Iranian regime and its puppets to obtain US$,” Wilson said, stressing that sanctions must be imposed on the bank, and that “Trump will fix it.”
Al-Rafidain Bank is central to Iraqi government payroll, international transactions, and financial services.
In July 2023, the US banned 14 Iraqi banks from conducting dollar transactions, as part of attempts to crack down on smuggling the currency to Iran.
In 2022, the US decided to limit access to its own currency within Iraq in an attempt to stem the flow of dollars into neighboring Syria and Iran.
The Iraqi dinar has since then suffered repeated bouts of volatility. The government, under Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, brought in a number of measures to try to strengthen the Iraqi economy and wean it off its dependence on the US dollar, with the government cracking down on the illicit trade in dollars
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