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To fight corruption, Barzani needs to
clean house
10.9.2011
By Michael Rubin
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September 10, 2011
Against the backdrop of the Arab Spring protests and
corollary demonstrations in Iraqi Kurdistan,
regional president Massoud Barzani promised to crack
down on corruption. “I am determined to combat
corruption and introduce reforms. Together, let us
make this the year of preserving our unity, fighting
corruption, and finalizing the integration of the
Kurdistan Regional Government KRG security
institutions,” he said. Masrour Barzani, his eldest
son and heir apparent, has also promised
accountability for the corrupt.
”If someone inside the KDP is accused of corruption,
he should face the court, like any ordinary person.
The KDP is against corruption and is putting all its
efforts into reforms and eradicating corruption,” he
declared in a magazine interview last month. There
is growing evidence, however, that in order to be
seen as champions against corruption, the Barzanis
may have to clean up their own house by creating
transparency with regard to the family’s dealings.
In October 2010, the local press in the Washington,
DC, area was abuzz with news about the sale of one
of the region’s choicest mansions.
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Michael Rubin |
Topping the list in McLean,
Virginia, at a price tag of just over $10 million,
was this mansion, less than five kilometers from the
Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters.
According to this real estate listing, the mansion
not only has four floors, but a five-car garage.
Other descriptions boast six bedrooms and eight
bathrooms.
The house was sold, according to a Washington
society magazine (see pages 90-91), by an Iranian
American developer and aspiring singer. While the
house is a residence, the purchaser is listed on
public records as Apeks, a limited liability company
(LLC).
Apeks, LLC, itself is a bit mysterious. There are
firms named Apeks in a number of countries—Russia,
Azerbaijan, Turkey, and the United States. One
American firm with that name was founded by an Ohio
resident as a pretty standard consulting operation,
but has since been sold after which the name
apparently lapsed.
Less than three weeks before the purchase of the
mega-mansion, however, the name Apeks, LLC, was
again registered, this time with the Commonwealth of
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission. At the time
of the registration, the address matched that of
Zell Law, a boutique law firm which has since folded
into a larger firm and now resides at a different
address from that of Apeks’ registration.
On August 24, 2011, I sent an email to the lawyer
who headed the now-closed firm, inquiring about
Apeks, LLC. He responded that he would not be able
to share information regarding Apeks, LLC. According
to his work profile, his expertise includes estate
and business planning, and the preservation of
wealth. In other words, his specialty includes
shielding his clients’ wealth against those who
might take too close an interest in it, such as
governments who tax it.
If Apeks, LLC, has a relationship with the Barzani
family, the electronically-accessible public records
do not directly show it. Under Virginia law, Apeks,
LLC, does not yet need to report its activities or
disclose its officers online.
There is ample evidence, however, to suggest that
Masrour Barzani may be the new owner of the mansion.
The previous owner and developer of the mansion was
an aspiring Iranian American singer. After Los
Angeles, the Washington, DC, area is a center of the
Iranian Diaspora in the United States, and so
sustains Persian language book stores and
newspapers. In an interview with a local Persian
language newspaper, the previous owner ignored Apeks,
LLC, and bragged that the “house…had been sold to
the son of a powerful foreign politician.”
In addition, area residents and Kurds living in the
area say Masrour Barzani has repeatedly stayed in
the mansion during his frequent trips to Washington.
The residence is close to the Tysons Corner Mall,
home to many swank shops, where Massoud Barzani’s
sons shop and dine during trips to Washington. An
express mail envelope sent to Masrour Barzani at the
mansion was accepted by the occupant. A
representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government,
when contacted by email regarding the property,
declined comment.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, it has always been troubling
that the ruling families appear to conflate
personal, party and government property. If, for
example, Masud Barzani retires after his second
term, it is unclear whether he would forfeit the Sar-e
Rash resort he calls home to his successor; other
retired officials have not evacuated the homes they
acquired. Nor have many of the political leaders and
the family dynasties they spawned ever explained to
the public how they acquired such vast wealth when,www.ekurd.netjust
a couple decades ago, they were penniless. Having a
shell corporation own the swank property would also
make sense, given the possibility that Masrour
Barzani could be sued by victims who allege
mistreatment by the intelligence and security
services which he heads and who believe him to be
complicit in their mistreatment.
Transparency matters. Regardless of the mansion’s
ownership, if President Barzani is sincere about
combating corruption, he should require that every
official serving in his government detail their
property holdings and business interests, not only
in Iraqi Kurdistan, but also abroad, and demand any
officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government also
reveal properties owned or held by other individuals
or corporations in which they reside. This will
combat conflicts of interest. Certainly, if
President Barzani is sincere, he should not wish a
discrepancy to develop between the promises he makes
to the Kurdish public and the actions of his family.
Leadership emerges from the top, and so it might
behoove President Barzani to set an example by
making his family Kurdistan’s most transparent.
After all, while President Barzani considers himself
a great populist and nationalist leader, ordinary
Kurds may find troubling luxuries family members
acquire, not only in Kurdistan but also apparently
overseas. Such mansions, after all, are more
reminiscent of those collected by the Saddam,
Mubarak, Ben Ali, and Qadhafi clans; they should not
be acquired by persons whose government salaries
would be too minimal to allow them to afford.
Perhaps the president’s office should be grand
because his office represents Kurdistan. However,
insatiable appetites for luxury are not the image
which the Barzani’s should be projecting to the
people of Kurdistan, nor do such palaces bring the
Kurds respect as a developing democracy among
governments and officials abroad.
Michael Rubin
is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute AEI. His major research area is the Middle
East, with special focus on Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and
Kurdish society. He also writes frequently on
transformative diplomacy and governance issues. At
AEI, Mr. Rubin chaired the "Dissent and Reform in
the Arab World" conference series. He was the lead
drafter of the Bipartisan Policy Center's 2008
report on Iran. In addition to his work at AEI,
several times each month, Mr. Rubin travels to
military bases across the United States and Europe
to instruct senior U.S. Army and Marine officers
deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan on issues relating
to regional state history and politics, Shiism, the
theological basis of extremism, and strategy.
The views expressed are the author's
alone.
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