Iraq Pursues Alleged Hospital Construction Fraudster Via Interpol

The Iraqi authorities said today that they are pursuing alleged hospital construction fraudster Jamal Abdul Wahid through Interpol in a bid to arrest him and hand him over to Baghdad after he fled Iraq.

The authorities also confirmed that Abdul Wahid's partner and lawyer were arrested.

Inspector general of the Ministry of Health Adel Muhsin said Interpol is pursuing Wahid on a case related to the establishment of three hospitals in Baghdad, Diwaniya and Diyala.

Former officials in the Health Ministry referred to the mentioned contractor the project to build three hospitals on the basis that his company is Australian, but he turned out to be an Iraqi man named Jamal Abdul Wahid and has no experience in the field of construction.

Abdul Wahid delivered forged guarantees at that time and received an amount of $96m (111bn IQD) as loans and was supposed to complete the work within 30 months. After more than 35 months the completion rate was only 16 percent so his partner and lawyer, who are Iraqis, were arrested.

The attempts to defraud the Iraqi governmental institutions were repeated more than once to steal money using forged documents. The latest attempt was to steal $6bn (7tr IQD) using forged documents.

Last year Iraq witnessed an attempt to steal $1.7bn (1.9tr IQD) in two contracts signed by the Ministry of Electricity with two companies that turned out later to be fake. The two contracts were canceled and the Minister of Electricity was sacked from his office.

By Raman Brosk

RN/DM/AKnews