Network accused of forging records for 104 Nasiriyah properties

DHI QAR — Investigators have uncovered a network accused of forging and manipulating records for the allocation and ownership of 104 properties at Nasiriyah Municipality Directorate, worth about 10.4 billion dinars, or $7.9 million at the official rate, the Federal Commission of Integrity said.

Arrest warrants have been executed against the municipality’s former director and several employees, some of whom were already held in other corruption cases. Investigators seized the original allocation record covering all 104 properties, each valued at about 100 million dinars, and say the allocation and transfer procedures involved forgery, manipulation and breaches of regulations. Thirty ownership files had been seized earlier as evidence and another 12 originals were taken subsequently. Transactions on all 104 properties have been frozen pending proceedings.

It is the ninth case involving land or property records in seven weeks. An assistant director at the Salah al-Din Real Estate Registration Directorate concealed ownership of about 95 properties across three governorates; the National Security Service arrested 61 people in Muthanna on Aug. 28 over more than 90 forged land transactions; a former Kirkuk registry assistant was convicted over a fraudulent ownership document; a network at a Real Estate Bank branch in Babil manipulated 56 loan files using forged deeds; two Najaf municipal staff were caught taking a bribe over a forged barcode on a land document; and 13 people were arrested in Diwaniyah over falsified papers used to obtain loans and land.