Iraqi Kurdistan prime minister Masrour Barzani, Erbil, July 2019. Photo: Rudaw
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The office of Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has rejected allegations that a limited liability corporation with purported ties to the Barzani family purchased two mansions in Beverly Hills in U.S. for $47 million.
The PM office released a statement on Sunday saying the office rejected a report by US magazine Variety that was published on November 13, 2019.
“In the past few days, a baseless news was published by an American website, in which prime minister’s name was falsely linked with the purchase of a villa,” reads the press release.
“Unfortunately, some local media [outlets] and websites spread the fake news,” it added.
“We will also take legal measures against those fabrications,” the statement read, while also branding the allegations as “fake news” and were totally “baseless”.
In the statement, the prime minister’s office to not address the substance of the article, which detailed the purchases using property listings and records.
The magazine said that “dive deep into records, however, and one name is linked to both Beverly Hills properties: Haval Dosky, a Virginia-based, ethnically Kurdish man with longstanding ties to Mansour Barzani, a prominent son of former Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani.
Barzani family house in U.S. Location: Beverly Hills, Calif.Price: $47 millionSize: 20,829 square feet and 11,838 square feet. Photo: dirt.com. See all photos.
Massoud Barzani’s tenure as president was also marred by controversy. Critics alleged that he and his family secretly held a virtual monopoly on various commercial businesses, reaping tens of billions from their telecommunications empire and other endeavors.
Though Barzani himself denied any involvement with commercial enterprises, a local newspaper accused Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party of collecting large profits from illegal oil smuggling into Iran. And a $47 million purchase of Beverly Hills real estate by his sons could be construed as providing evidence of some form of corruption.
Kurdistan considered as the most corrupted part of Iraq. According to Kurdish lawmakers and leaked documents billions of dollars are missing from Iraqi Kurdistan’s oil revenues.
The ruling Barzani clan control a large number of commercial enterprises and involved in oil business in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a gross value of several billion US dollars, according to observers.
The Barzanis have been routinely accused by critics of amassing huge wealth from oil business for the family instead of serving the population. KDP party leader and ex-president Massoud Barzani remains the most powerful leader in the shadow according to analysts. Massoud’s son Masrour is the Kurdistan region’s prime minister and his nephew Nechirvan Barzani is president of Kurdistan.
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