200 currency exchange network threatens the Iraqi markets

200 currency exchange network threatens the Iraqi markets


 
31-12-2017 12:58 PM

Iraqi markets have witnessed an unprecedented spread of counterfeit currency, with weak government control of traded currencies, leading to heavy losses for traders .

According to a security official in the Interior Ministry of the "New Arab", at least 200 currency counterfeiting networks are active in different parts of Iraq and vary in their ability to counterfeit in terms of quantity produced, but often specialize in counterfeiting the currency of twenty five thousand dinars Thousand dinars .

The security official, who declined to be named, said that the quantities of counterfeit currency currently in the market decreased but still constitute a danger, which distrusted the dinar, as most traders require dealing in dollars instead of local currency, estimating the counterfeit amount that was destroyed by more than 250 Million dinars (the dollar = about 1250 dinars) in a year and a half .

According to data from the Central Bank of Iraq, the cash mass circulating in the Iraqi market is between 35 and 40 trillion dinars .

The security services announced, during the recent period, the arrest of networks of currency counterfeiting and the confiscation of presses of their own, the most recent mid-month in Basra. Interior ministry officials say the networks import equipment from Iran, usually medium-sized presses with aluminum alloys used in currency copies, with special inks and special paper smuggled through smuggling networks operating across the border .

Hardly a day goes by for any Iraqi shopkeeper but finds among his cash at least one forged piece of paper, with little oversight, according to traders .

Hassan Omran, the owner of a wholesale clothing store in the Shorja commercial market in the center of Baghdad, confirms to the "new Arab" that he discovers daily entry of at least 250 thousand Iraqi dinars (equivalent to 200 dollars) of counterfeit currency to its revenues without To know, explaining that the discovery of the existence of counterfeit currency under his working conditions is very difficult, because of dealing with large sums of money .

"We are dealing in bulk and selling large quantities, and the lowest amount we receive is five million dinars (equivalent to 3,200 US dollars)," Omran said, referring to the receipt of these amounts matrices. "We are transferring these amounts to exchange companies in order to convert them into dollars, so we discover that we have fallen victim to the counterfeit currency," he said, noting that he was destroying what was under his hands of counterfeit money so as not to reach the poor .

But the low-income people say they have not been extradited from the crimes of counterfeiters. A porter in a beautiful market in eastern Baghdad says Ali Jihad said he had been subjected to such an operation last week when he transferred goods worth 25,000 dinars ($ 20) In the evening when going to buy medicine from a pharmacy that the amount of one red card was a fake, saying to the "new Arab" that a number of workers in his profession are exposed almost daily to such situations .

"Money-making gangs are well known in our regions," says Ali al-Hatimi, a banker in al-Amin neighborhood in Baghdad. "They have modern machines for forgery from Iran .

Hatimi points out that mafia cheats correspond to a number of unemployed youth in order to promote the amounts they have, by giving them half of the amounts they run, pointing out that no one can talk to them or prevent them because they carry arms .

He continued: "The Mizoru currency sold each million dinars ($ 800 equivalent) for the amount of 100 thousand Iraqi dinars," explaining that some of the weak souls deal with them .

Al-Hitimi stressed the need for intervention by the Iraqi authorities to prevent the entry of Iranian counterfeiting tools that have drained the funds of Iraqis, and to account for the mafia fraud that has spread clearly in the recent period in areas east of Baghdad .

In the context of the weakness of the security role and under the weight of the losses of traders to exacerbate the fraud, some of them rushed to rely on counterfeit currency detectors of Chinese origin, in order to reduce the losses incurred by this phenomenon .


The "currency device", as traders call it, is a square box that is open from two sides and has a blue light that allows you to see the watermark or hidden line inside the coin .

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