500 billion dollars stolen under Maliki rule in Iraq

The Iraqi Commission of Integrity (CoI) spokesman Adil Nouri has claimed that half of the government's oil income and funds for reconstruction were 'stolen' and 'vanished' from Iraq during the 8-year period of office of former President Nouri Maliki. Speaking at the Iraqi Parliament, Nouri said that around 500 billion dollars from government coffers has "disappeared" and is perhaps the greatest corruption in history. Underlining that Iraq's oil income between 2006 and 2014 alone was only $ 822 billion, he said that the Maliki government had also received more than $250 billion in funds from many countries, namely the U.S., used to pay the salaries and pensions of Iraqi government workers and for reconstruction projects. Within the scope of corruption investigations carried out by the CoI, Nouri stated that former defense minister Hazm Shalan, former trade minister Abdul-Fatah Sudani and former electricity minister Aiham al-Sammarae were involved in graft during their tenures and charged of corruption. Along with 53 other officials, a prosecution against the Iraqi Red Crescent authorities was also brought and is still continuing.