An Official is Accused of Embezzling $ 130 Million

Iraq - Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Mehdi Saleh who is a member of the council of Diala province (East of Baghdad) said that an arrest warrant was issued on April 6, 2009 against the president of the council Ibrahim Bajlan for embezzling $ 130 million of public funds. Saleh said that the Integrity Committee discovered while auditing the 2008 budget of the Diala Council that there were many illusionary projects and that huge amounts of money were spent without specifying what was it spent on. The committee asked Bajlan to return the money but he refused. Bajlan, who is a member of the Kurdish National Federation headed by Iraqi president Jalal Talbani, denied the charges. The arrest warrant has not been executed.
Source: AFP, Al-Hayat