Iraq ranks fifth from bottom in Transparency International’s corruption index of 180 countries. For Herish Muharam, chairman of the Kurdish government’s investment board, it is the number-one challenge.
But for those who combine know-how and connections in Iraq with connections and know-how in international finance, profitable inroads can be made. A small but growing number of savvy merchant banks are raising cash internationally for case-by-case buyouts and advisory ventures in Iraq, especially in Kurdistan.
Some observers refer to them as carpetbaggers, like the 19th-century US entrepreneurs from northern states who snapped up cheap assets in the old Confederate areas after the US civil war, travelling south with suitcases made of carpet.
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