Iraq Arrests 13 In 6 Billion Dinar Electricity Corruption Case

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Iraq's Federal Integrity Commission announced Tuesday the execution of an arrest warrant against the former director of the Muthanna Electricity Distribution Company and 12 other defendants in a case involving the deliberate damage of public funds exceeding 6 billion dinars.

The Commission stated that its field operations team at the Muthanna Investigation Office, after investigation, verification, and visits to the General Company for Southern Electricity Distribution's Muthanna Branch and the Sawb al-Kabir Maintenance Center, was able to identify the waste of 6,150,000,000 dinars, revealing that the governorate's electricity distribution department had purchased electrical materials worth that amount without any actual need for them.

The Commission said the former department director and the other defendants, in 2024, purchased quantities of electrical materials after manipulating the unit of measurement and purchase requests for the purpose of concealment and to purchase the largest possible number of boards. A large portion of the materials remained unused and has not been installed to date. Among the purchased materials, 48 power plant improvement boards were entered into storage records and then placed in consumed materials storage. The materials stored in the warehouses have been seized and secured, and the original expenditure transactions for the purchase of the double panel material have been recorded and preserved as evidence.

The judge of the Muthanna Integrity Investigation Court decided to detain the former Muthanna Electricity Distribution director and 12 employees under the provisions of Article 340 of the Penal Code. Those detained include the former and current accounts directors of the directorate, the sales director, and the heads of the internal audit, stations, consumed materials warehouse, and procurement committee divisions. An arrest and search warrant was also issued for three additional employees including a former accounts director. All defendants have been banned from travel for deliberately damaging the funds and interests of the institution in which they work.

The Muthanna electricity corruption case is the latest in a series of high-profile Iraqi financial corruption prosecutions that have accelerated under PM al-Zaidi's anti-corruption push. Previous cases this year included the sentencing of three Iraqi MPs to seven years imprisonment and the return of tens of billions of dinars, the arrest of the Oil Whale Adnan Jumaili in May, and the US Treasury's sanctions on the International Development Bank for facilitating Iranian dollar access. The electricity sector has been a persistent source of corruption in Iraq, with billions spent on materials, contracts, and maintenance that have failed to resolve chronic power shortages across the country.