Travellers barred from taking more than $20,000 out of Iraq

BAGHDAD — Iraqi travellers may not take more than $20,000 in cash out of the country and must declare amounts between $10,000 and $20,000 to customs, the head of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Office said.

“The General Commission of Customs has been required to ask travellers about the amounts they are carrying, as the Anti-Money Laundering Council issued regulations for the transfer of funds stipulating that any Iraqi citizen travelling with amounts between $10,000 and $20,000 must declare them, while anything above $20,000 is absolutely prohibited,” Hussein Ali Hussein told Dijlah TV.

Disclosure can extend to high-value goods, including luxury watches, which authorities say have been used to move money abroad and convert it to cash. Customs officers may question travellers suspected of carrying several expensive watches and require a disclosure form, which goes to his office for checks on the source of funds.

Hussein also said the U.S. Treasury “has no connection to corruption cases, common crimes or drugs inside Iraq, and it does not have special lists of its own,” and that information it issues is treated only as a reference. His office coordinates formally with financial intelligence units abroad, including in the United States.

Travellers can buy limited amounts of dollars at the official rate of 1,320 dinars through authorised banks and exchange companies including at airports. The gap with the parallel rate has drawn scrutiny, giving travellers and networks an incentive to buy at the subsidised rate and resell at a profit, and the Central Bank cut the monthly traveller allocation from $3,000 to $2,000 in July.