Mafiyat is effective to leak counterfeit currency to Iraqi markets

Mafiyat is effective to leak counterfeit currency to Iraqi markets



17-02-2018 12:59 PM

The Euphrates -
 
The Iraqi market has recently witnessed a large spread of counterfeit currency, which has made traders and citizens susceptible to currency trading without knowledge, which eventually led to heavy losses.

Not a day passes on any Iraqi merchant, but finds among his money a counterfeit currency, in light of the weakness of government control of currencies traded in the markets, according to a number of traders.

Samer al-Obeidi, the owner of a wholesale clothing store in the Shorja market, the largest shopping center in central Baghdad, says that at least US $ 300 is discovered every day from counterfeit currency to the warehouse's income. Adding that there is no control by government institutions on the economy, in addition to the mafias and gangs that leak those counterfeit currencies in large quantities to the market, pointing out that it destroys what is under his hands of false money so as not to reach the poor.

The decline in security and instability, as well as rampant corruption in all branches of government institutions, exacerbated the fraud, prompting some traders to rely on counterfeit currency detectors of Chinese origin in order to reduce the losses incurred by this phenomenon.

The Currency Device is a square box with a blue light that reveals the mark or line in the coin.

"To reduce the loss of my business due to the spread of counterfeit currency, I bought a special device to detect fraud in foreign currencies or in the Iraqi currency," says Qasim al-Mammawi, a wholesale trader in Jamila, a major commercial center in Baghdad selling vegetables and fruits.

"We hope the government to do the work of the economic security system to monitor the Iraqi markets and the leakage of counterfeit currency by gangs and mafia linked to outside parties.

"There are gangs visiting the currency, which are known in our areas, working freely in coordination with officers in the Ministry of the Interior," said Hussain al-Fadhli, a banker in the central Baghdad district of Kifah. "A number of Interior Ministry officers receive large sums from these gangs, In order to continue their work at the same pace.

"Most of the people involved in counterfeiting and money laundering are members of militias and influential parties in the Iraqi government, so it is difficult to stop those parties or mafias that leak counterfeit currency into the markets," he said, adding that they have modern machines for forgery from Iran.

Economists stressed that local currency fraud became common after 2003 because of the absence of regulatory bodies and the weak security situation, because counterfeiting and money laundering are more than a banker or gang.

In turn, said the economist, Rifaat Abdul Qadir absence of economic planning methodology in Iraq, and the implementation of special programs to address the disadvantages suffered by the Iraqi economy, as well as the absence of control of the Iraqi markets, contributed to the increase of currency fraud rings in Iraq.

"There are mafias linked to political figures or parties that have armed militias working on foreign currency fraud and money laundering, as well as currency smuggling abroad, so it is difficult to deter those gangs that have significant influence in the Iraqi government.

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