Report: Iranian-linked network uses Iraqi state payroll to fund diaspora operations in US

WASHINGTON, United States — A network tied to Iran is exploiting Iraqi government salaries to finance operations through diaspora communities in the United States and the wider West, according to a report by the Washington-based Middle East Forum Institute. The report describes a cross-border financial-intelligence structure that moves Iraqi state revenues abroad. Under the scheme, salaries are deposited into Iraqi bank accounts under fictitious employee identities, with debit cards then used by Iraqi and Arab diaspora members in Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Florida and California. The report says intermediaries linked to armed militias manage these cardholders, before the funds are routed through informal transfer networks operating in Basra and Amman to Iran-backed groups. The report also documents alleged exploitation of an Iraqi law that grants lifetime salaries to opposition Iraqis, many of them affiliated with pro-Iranian movements, who were resettled from the Rafha camp inside Saudi Arabia between 1991 and 2009. It was submitted to the US Congress and frames the network as an Iranian tool for influence and intelligence collection in the West, including during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.