Daja: Caribbean passports: How did Iraqi banker Hassan Nasser Jaafar al-Lami benefit from Dominican citizenship?

Caribbean passports: How did Iraqi banker Hassan Nasser Jaafar al-Lami benefit from Dominican citizenship?

This article features an investigation by Government Accountability Project’s Investigator, Zack Kopplin, and was originally published here.

Al-Lami is considered the most prominent holder of this nationality along with other Iraqi businessmen, but Al-Lami has a different story, as his cross-border relations extended from Iraq to Iran, Syria and then Lebanon, until a woman who claimed to be an employee of the Central Bank of Iraq described him, in a television interview, as “Qassem Soleimani financial” in Iraq.

In February 2023, Iraqi National Banking Security summoned Hassan Nasser Jaafar al-Lami, 46, who is close to the Iranian regime and nicknamed by Iraq’s financial circles as the “king of forgery,” according to the New York Times, for questioning in connection with the case of transferring money abroad through falsifying invoices and dealing with Iran, and released him less than an hour later.

In 2017, Lami obtained Dominican citizenship according to the official gazette issued by her government, which was seen by Daraj, and he is accused of corruption and financing terrorist groups directly and indirectly linked to terrorist factions, according to an investigation published by the American “New York Times“.

Al-Lami is considered the most prominent holder of this nationality along with other Iraqi businessmen, but Al-Lami has a different story, as his cross-border relations extended from Iraq to Iran, Syria and then Lebanon, until a woman who claimed to be an employee of the Central Bank of Iraq described him, in a television interview, as “Qassem Soleimani financial” in Iraq.

The investigation comes in the context of the Caribbean Passports cross-border investigative project, led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), with the participation of the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, and a number of journalism platforms in more than 20 countries, including Daraj. The project reveals that around 7700,<> people have purchased Dominican citizenship, which enables them to travel globally without a visa. This list includes a variety of suspicious politicians and businessmen or criminals and outlaws.

It seems that the phenomenon of obtaining a second passport in Iraq is not strange, especially after the country went through political and economic turns that led to instability and insecurity, in light of which immigration services companies began to give advice on the possibility of Iraqis obtaining another passport, and the list of countries whose citizenship can be obtained,the first of which is Dominique.

Benefit from citizenship

THE UK COMMERCIAL REGISTRY WEBSITE SHOWED THAT AL-LAMI FOUNDED S&M GOLDEN GROUP LTD AND ITS NUMBER 14460021. Interestingly, he registered this company, described as a real estate company, using Dominican nationality, on November 3, 2022. The commercial registry indicates that the company is active so far, and is run by Lami, a Dominican national.

Al-Lamy also has a partner in this company, Saleh Fadl, an Iraqi national who also lives in Iraq, and is a shareholder to this day in this company, according to the British Commercial Register website. In addition, Fadl’s shares exceed 25 percent, but do not exceed 50 percent, and he has the right to dismiss the company’s director and appoint a new one.

Al Lami Company is headquartered in College House, 17 King Edwards Road, Ruislip, London, United Kingdom, HA4 7AE, and when searching more about the nature of this area, it was found that it includes a number of real estate and health companies.

We did not find any further details about his partner, Saleh Fadl, but the commercial registry shows that he is in Iraq and holds Iraqi citizenship.

Trade with Iran

While Al-Lami benefited from Dominican citizenship until 2022 to register a new company in the United Kingdom, he had begun investigating him through Arab media, especially after banks in which he shareholds, such as Noor Al-Islami Al-Iraqi, were subject to US sanctions because of their dealings with Iran.

The first set of US sanctions on Iran was in August 2018, and was limited to trading in cars, gold and metals. The second set of sanctions, issued by the US Treasury Department under former President Donald Trump three months later, affected the oil trade, one of its most important exports.

The US Treasury Department lifted sanctions in 2019, referring waivers to countries importing Iranian oil, which means that even importing countries are subject to US sanctions.

On January 21, 2020, an Iraqi MP revealed “leaked documents” obtained by Al-Arabiya, containing evidence that the Iraqi General Organization for Oil Marketing (SOMO) falsified. According to the documents, several private Iraqi banks were asked to open credit accounts in US dollars to import oil derivatives to meet local needs, such as gas, oil, gasoline, diesel, white oil and liquid gas. According to the report, the boards of directors of these banks include Iranian businessmen and individuals with ties to Iran, and Daraj was also briefed on these names. This report confirms that Tehran is taking advantage of these contracts to defy U.S. sanctions.

Although former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not control the government, Iran continued through several banks close to it, including the Union Investment Bank of Iraq, where the ilami has a 40 percent stake, and is owned by Fadel al-Dabbas and businessman Khamis al-Khanjar, both of whom were placed on the US sanctions list for their association with Iran-backed militias, paying bribes and contributing to corruption, according to the US Treasury Department.

It is noteworthy that the banks “Trans Iraq” and “Noor Iraq Islamic” are currently being merged, according to what an Iraqi banker told Daraj, adding that “the banks of “Trans Iraq” and “Noor Iraq” were merged under the name of “Islamic Reconstruction Bank”, which is the first merger to occur in the banking sector after the Central Bank’s decision to raise the capital of banks to 400 billion dinars.

The banker does not know who the owner or chairman of Emaar Islamic Bank is, and refused to provide us with information about al-Lami, saying, “My information is banking, not personal.”

“King of Forgery”

Al-Lami owns a chain of other banks, including Noor Iraq Islamic, Trans Iraq, and Sama Baghdad Currency Exchange Company, which was based in Amman, Jordan, which Jordanian authorities sealed with red wax in 2016 due to forgery and legal violations, according to its statement. In 2019, when the king launched the “Fundraising for Fines” campaign, Lami was one of the first Arab investors to donate 100,140 dinars ($15,<>), and said in a press statement that he considers Jordan his second country having lived there for more than <> years.

In 2020, the New York Times reported that al-Lami was “known in Iraqi financial circles” as the “king of fake invoices.” In February 2022, Iraqi media reported that al-Lami and his son were arrested on charges of smuggling dollars. They were reportedly released. Iraqi authorities did not respond to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’s request for information about why al-Lami was arrested or whether he faces any formal charges. Al-Lami did not respond to requests for comment either.

The New York Times investigation also reported that al-Lami entered Lebanon on December 6, 2019, during the period of the October 17 uprising, where demonstrations swept through various streets against the ruling authority, and the Lebanese pound began to collapse against the US dollar, while dollar smuggling operations to Syria recorded a noticeable increase.

One month before heading to Lebanon, in November 2019,the Central Bank of Iraq, headed by Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, issued a decision to prevent sanctioned banks, including Noor Iraq Islamic, owned by Al-Lami, from dealing in foreign currency, in addition to preventing financial institutions and companies from dealing with these banks.

We contacted the Central Bank of Iraq, but did not receive a response.

Al-Lami’s contribution to the Trans Iraq Bank, which he previously owned, decreased from 9 percent in 2019 to 5 percent in 2021, according to the bank’s own website.

Hidden from view?

Iraqi press platforms report that immediately after the release of al-Lami and his son Rami, after being interrogated about the issue of dollar smuggling and falsification of invoices, al-Lami fled through Baghdad International Airport. Today, Lami’s whereabouts are unknown and nothing is known about him. The interrogation team tried to communicate with him or those close to him, but to no avail. His presence in Lebanon is not confirmed, given that he visited the country in late 2019, as previously reported in the investigation.

Dominica Reply

As a result of a number of businessmen and their families obtaining Dominican citizenship, benefiting from its program, the OCCRP team contacted the Dominica Citizenship by Investment Unit to respond: “Our background checks are independent and comprehensive, carried out by internationally renowned independent due diligence companies, a list of which can be found on our website. We also submit applications to the Joint Information and Information Centre of the Caribbean Community (IMPACS JRCC). These companies/agencies verify the identity of the applicant, and conduct checks through all international partners for financial crimes, security concerns, and visa denial among other red flags. They use Interpol, the FBI, sanctions lists and documents. They check the background on the ground in all areas in which the applicant would have studied, worked or lived.”