SAVAYA OPENS TWO FRONTS: WE WILL PURSUE SENIOR IRAQI OFFICIALS, THEIR FOREIGN PASSPORTS, AND THE GOVERNMENT ON OUR TERMS.
The US President’s envoy to Iraq, Mark Savaya, confirmed on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) that his team is working on the ground in Iraq to support efforts to form a new government and prevent Iranian-backed militias from coming to power, stressing that preparing to confront the corruption crisis in the country is no less important than the ongoing political and security battle.
In a statement published on his accounts and reviewed by Baghdad Today, Savaya said, “It is of utmost importance, indeed of utmost importance, to prepare to confront the corruption crisis in Iraq,” explaining that the required effort “must go beyond merely tracking the looted funds transferred abroad, to also include determining the final destination of those funds and how they will ultimately be used.”
He added that coordination with other institutions allowed his team to gain a “comprehensive understanding” of the people involved, including “senior government officials and their family members who benefited from corrupt Iraqi funds,” explaining that these funds “were not only used to purchase multiple properties in several countries, but were also used to obtain foreign nationalities and passports, sometimes under similar names, and in other cases under different identities, in order to evade tracking and accountability.”
Savaya added that “the majority of these cases are concentrated within the region, while others extend beyond it through citizenship-by-investment programs offered by some countries,” noting that the information currently available “greatly enhances the ability to pursue accountability, recover stolen assets, and cooperate with international partners to combat corruption at its roots.”
He pointed out that the harm of corruption “is not limited to the Iraqi people and undermining national security, but extends to enabling terrorist groups and fueling their activities in multiple countries,” stressing that he will work “in close cooperation with the US Treasury Department and the Office of Foreign Assets Control to ensure that all those involved are held accountable without exception, that no one is above the law, and that justice is achieved for the Iraqi people.”
It is worth noting that Mark Savaya is an Iraqi-American businessman of Assyrian origin, appointed by US President Donald Trump as special envoy to Iraq in October 2025, in a move described by analysts as part of an attempt to rearrange the relationship with Baghdad and to exert pressure on corruption and uncontrolled weapons.
Since taking office, Savaya has emphasized in several statements that corruption, not the militias themselves, is the “main obstacle” to Iraq’s stability, calling for the dismantling of “corruption networks” that fund armed groups through fictitious salaries, fictitious loans, and fake assets, according to recent reports in international media.
In a related context, Savaya had previously announced that the United States would conduct a “comprehensive review” of suspicious financial records and transfers linked to smuggling and money laundering operations that fund “terrorist activities and smuggling networks,” warning that the results of this review could lead to new sanctions against “malicious actors” inside and outside Iraq.
Trump’s envoy also stressed that the US administration views the corruption file in Iraq as part of a broader battle to curb the influence of armed militias linked to Tehran, noting that reducing the resources of corruption and money laundering networks is, in his view, a prerequisite for the success of any path to rebuilding Iraqi state institutions and consolidating its monopoly on weapons.