Mark Savaya, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Iraq, has said that corruption must be tackled decisively if Iraq is to achieve stability, arguing that militias are a symptom rather than the root cause of the country’s challenges.
He identified fake payrolls, fake loans, and fictitious assets as major sources of corrupt funds that must be eliminated.
Full statement from @Mark_Savaya:
If Iraq is to be fixed, corruption must be confronted first and decisively. Militias are a symptom. Corruption is the disease.
I know in detail how illicit money is channeled. It does not flow only through senior principals. More importantly, it moves through layers of lower level actors such as family members, friends, guards, drivers, and intermediaries. This structure creates insulation and deniability while keeping the system fully operational.
This is a highly complex and deliberately constructed network that has been active for more than two decades. It has successfully bypassed regulations, compliance frameworks, and international auditing mechanisms. Through this system, Iranian backed militia groups have been financially empowered, protected, and sustained.
Any serious effort to stabilize Iraq, restore sovereignty, and dismantle militias must begin with dismantling the corruption networks that finance and protect them. The sources of massive corrupt money such as fake payrolls, fake loans, and fictitious assets must stop.
Without that, every other effort will fail.
