Investment advice needed . . .
Posted by: Roy T on 10 December 2004
Kurds try to invest 14 tons of cash
By Thomas Catan in London
Published: December 10 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 10 2004 02:00
A Washington-based lobbying firm with strong ties to the US Republican party has been in talks with international banks to facilitate the placing by the Iraqi Kurds of more than half a billion dollars in cash.
The money is part of $1.4bn in Iraqi oil revenues paid in cash by the US-led occupation authority to the Kurds in June 2004, just days before it handed power to an interim Iraqi government.
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, a firm founded by two senior aides of President George H.W. Bush and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, is representing the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Washington. Robert Blackwill, until last month White House chief adviser on Iraq, has also joined the firm.
Ed Rogers, a founding partner, confirmed the firm was working for the Kurds but said it was not managing any money for them. "Know that BGR has no role in managing investments for the Kurds and the only comment about our role that we can make is what is listed in our foreign agent registration filing," he wrote in an e-mail.
People familiar with the matter say that the firm has made inquiries about investing the cash, which is currently held at a Kurdish bank, in Switzerland. However, the efforts have been delayed as banks make checks on the provenance of the cash.
The Coalition Provisional Authority had shipped the money to the Kurds in three helicopters filled with shrink-wrapped blocks of $100-dollar notes. The money, which was outside the regular budget, would have weighed 14 tonnes and represented the equivalent of around six months regular financing for the Kurdish regional government It was part of nearly $1.8bn paid by the CPA to the Kurds outside its regular financing in its final two months of life. The money came from the Development Fund for Iraq, set up by the United Nations following the war for use in rebuilding the country.
The Kurds have refused to give UN-mandated auditors access to their records, but say they have not spent any of the money. A spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government said the payment was part of $4.5bn in funds it claims the UN owes the region as part of the now defunct oil-for-food programme. He declined to confirm or deny the contents of talks with banks. But he said the KRG was actively seeking investment from abroad in projects, including a new airport.
No one has alleged that the transactions being mooted are improper. But the lack of transparency has fuelled questions about that payment, as well as billions of dollars handed out by the CPA in the weeks before the handover.
Before dissolving on June 28, the CPA spent or earmarked around $20bn from the DFI, which contained the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales, Iraqi government bank accounts frozen in 1991 and money left over from the UN-administered "oil-for-food" programme.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board, a UN-mandated watchdog made up of several international financial institutions, is scheduled to issue its opinion on the CPA's stewardship of Iraqi funds on Monday. The CPA's Inspector General is also preparing to publish a hard-hitting report on the issue. A draft of the report is understood to have angered senior US Pentagon officials and Paul Bremer, the former US administrator of Iraq.
By Thomas Catan in London
Published: December 10 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 10 2004 02:00
A Washington-based lobbying firm with strong ties to the US Republican party has been in talks with international banks to facilitate the placing by the Iraqi Kurds of more than half a billion dollars in cash.
The money is part of $1.4bn in Iraqi oil revenues paid in cash by the US-led occupation authority to the Kurds in June 2004, just days before it handed power to an interim Iraqi government.
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, a firm founded by two senior aides of President George H.W. Bush and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, is representing the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Washington. Robert Blackwill, until last month White House chief adviser on Iraq, has also joined the firm.
Ed Rogers, a founding partner, confirmed the firm was working for the Kurds but said it was not managing any money for them. "Know that BGR has no role in managing investments for the Kurds and the only comment about our role that we can make is what is listed in our foreign agent registration filing," he wrote in an e-mail.
People familiar with the matter say that the firm has made inquiries about investing the cash, which is currently held at a Kurdish bank, in Switzerland. However, the efforts have been delayed as banks make checks on the provenance of the cash.
The Coalition Provisional Authority had shipped the money to the Kurds in three helicopters filled with shrink-wrapped blocks of $100-dollar notes. The money, which was outside the regular budget, would have weighed 14 tonnes and represented the equivalent of around six months regular financing for the Kurdish regional government It was part of nearly $1.8bn paid by the CPA to the Kurds outside its regular financing in its final two months of life. The money came from the Development Fund for Iraq, set up by the United Nations following the war for use in rebuilding the country.
The Kurds have refused to give UN-mandated auditors access to their records, but say they have not spent any of the money. A spokesman for the Kurdish Regional Government said the payment was part of $4.5bn in funds it claims the UN owes the region as part of the now defunct oil-for-food programme. He declined to confirm or deny the contents of talks with banks. But he said the KRG was actively seeking investment from abroad in projects, including a new airport.
No one has alleged that the transactions being mooted are improper. But the lack of transparency has fuelled questions about that payment, as well as billions of dollars handed out by the CPA in the weeks before the handover.
Before dissolving on June 28, the CPA spent or earmarked around $20bn from the DFI, which contained the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales, Iraqi government bank accounts frozen in 1991 and money left over from the UN-administered "oil-for-food" programme.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board, a UN-mandated watchdog made up of several international financial institutions, is scheduled to issue its opinion on the CPA's stewardship of Iraqi funds on Monday. The CPA's Inspector General is also preparing to publish a hard-hitting report on the issue. A draft of the report is understood to have angered senior US Pentagon officials and Paul Bremer, the former US administrator of Iraq.