Iraq Dollar Corruption

Iraq sells oil. The dollars arrive in New York. Between that moment and the market in Baghdad, a portion is taken.

It has happened systematically, daily, for more than twenty years, through a single auction window at the Central Bank of Iraq. This site documents how, and by whom.

Documented dollars sold at the auction, 2004 to 2026

A

$514,997,749,994

At least $515 billion is documented. The figure is a floor, not a total: results were recovered for 3,787 of 8,240 days in the series. The remaining days are auction days whose results have not yet been retrieved, or were never published by the Central Bank. A missing figure is recorded as missing, never as zero.

Estimated cumulative spread captured since 2004

B
$21,583,824,928
Estimate. How is this computed?

Official and parallel rate, dinars per dollar

The chart shows the official rate and the parallel market rate, month by month, in dinars per dollar. The distance between the two lines is the spread.

How this project works

Primary documents first

Every figure is traceable to a bulletin, a statement or a filing.

Tiered evidence

An estimate is labelled an estimate wherever it appears.

Open arithmetic

Every calculation is published and can be reproduced.