Security forces raid Baghdad's central exchanges, arrest senior traders

Last Update: 2023-01-21 00:00:00 - Source: Shafaq News

Shafaq News/ Iraqi security forces reportedly raided the al-Kifah and al-Harithiya Central Exchanges downtown the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad, and apprehended a group of forex traders on Saturday.

The source told Shafaq News Agency that the security forces were tracing a "gang of forex traders" involved in "manipulating the market and tampering with the US dollar's exchange rate against the Iraqi dinar."

The force, according to the source, chased some forex traders who tried to evade the arrest but refuted the media reports claiming that armed altercations occurred during those manhunts.

Financial expert Nabil Jabbar al-Tamimi said that the arrestees are purportedly involved in "black transactions" that continue to exacerbate the depreciation of the national currency, prompting the authorities to deploy "police tactics" to handle the matter.

"Suppressing black transactions contributes to reversing the dinar's depreciation and restoring the regular exchange rate," he explained.

Al-Tamimi highlighted a certain "interference" in the Iraqi banking system that allows a leak of hard currency to "neighboring countries"