Erbil archbishop named in federal lawsuit targeting Iraqi mob
ROME – A dual Iraqi-American woman has named Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda in a federal lawsuit in the United States over claims about his personal, political, and business ties to what is essentially the Iraqi mafia.
For years, Warda has been a point of reference not only within his Chaldean Catholic community, but for Iraqi Christians generally, especially in the wake of the violent persecution and mass displacement unleashed by ISIS in 2014.
Amid the ISIS-induced mass displacement and the ongoing effort to rebuild after the liberation of the Nineveh Plain in 2017, Warda gained a reputation as an avid entrepreneur and one of the strongest defenders of one of the world’s most persecuted Christian minorities.
This reputation has also won him strong ties in Washinton, developing a strong relationship with United States Republican Congressman Chris Smith, who visited camps for the displaced in Erbil in December 2016 and later spearheaded a bill to support Iraq’s beleaguered Christian minority.
In 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Emergency Relief and Accountability Act, Warda was in the room, and Trump apparently handed him the pen he’d personally used to sign the bill, which assigned some $6.8 million of funding into Warda’s hands.
Supporters would say there are perhaps few people who have done as much as Warda for Iraqi Christians, however, he is now facing allegations of terrorism and bribery related to his association with the Hanna family.
Under the microscope, in particular, are his ties to brothers Nizar, Nameer and Ramez Hanna Abdo Nasri, who are generally seen as Iraqi mobsters due to the illicit nature of how they amassed their wealth.
Warda specifically has been named in a federal lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, along with other judicial and political actors, by real estate developer Sara Saleem, who has accused Warda of interfering in an ongoing criminal case against the Hanna brothers in Iraq.
Saleem has accused the Hanna’s of aiding and abetting in her kidnapping and has said they swindled her out of millions of dollars, as well as half of her company. She has provided documentation for some of her claims that Crux has seen.
Warda in a statement earlier this year said he “categorically denies and rejects these false and defamatory allegations and will contest them vigorously in the appropriate forums.”
Hanna brothers
Featured by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in a June 2022 report, the Hanna brothers, particularly Nizar, are real estate tycoons who fund shopping malls, residential complexes and high-rise office buildings in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The family began its financial rise in the 1990s, when Iraq was crippled by international sanctions and most basic goods were banned from importation, opening the door to a broad smuggling network for moving products in and out of Iraq.
Cigarettes were the most profitable commodity, and, according to OCCRP, the Hanna’s in the late 1980s forged ties among political elites and monopolized the smuggling of black-market tobacco, building an operation that spans throughout the Middle East and the funds from which are allegedly funneled to organized crime rings, corrupt politicians, and local militias.
Though the brothers have since shifted away from cigarettes, the infrastructure they developed in the 1990s and 2000s still exits, with OCCRP reporting that there are six illegal cigarette factories operating in Iraq, three of which are linked to the Hannas.
Today, in large part thanks to their role in the black market cigarette trade, the Hannas sit at the apex of a financial empire that has now expanded into pharmaceuticals, liquor imports, and swank real estate developments.
A deal gone wrong
In 2014, the Hanna brothers struck a deal with Saleem, a dual US-Iraqi citizen now based in Virginia and whose Iraqi company Al-Saqr Al-Jarih competes for and is regularly awarded the most significant construction contracts in Iraq.
As part of her 2014 agreement with Nizar, Nameer and Ramez Hanna, which Crux has seen, Saleem arranged for the transfer of $100 million from the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) to finance the construction of the Safat Project in Basra, a joint venture in which the money was to be repaid by the Hanna’s and Saleem would relinquish 50 percent of her company’s shares to the brothers without compensation, with the promise that they would complete and expand the Safat project through their own means.
However, shortly after signing the deal and receiving the $100 million loan, Saleem claims she began to receive threats from Iraqi government officials demanding that she donate money to support certain individuals. When she refused, she said she was threatened with “big trouble” and physical harm.
In September of that year, Saleem said she was kidnapped by militants who surrounded her vehicle, hit her, and imprisoned her in a house in Baghdad, demanding to know demanding to access to the $100 million she had received from TBI. Saleem said she was in captivity for three months before escaping.
She has since pursued legal action against the Hannas, and in a July 2023 ruling which Crux has seen, the brothers were sentenced to three years imprisonment after the Alkhark Baghdad Federal Court of Appeal found them guilty of defrauding both TBI and Saleem of $100 million.
However, an Iraqi court ordered a retrial of the case in November 2024, and the date was set for Dec. 8, 2024. The Hannas were then released on a bail of $33,000 each, and subsequently flew to Lebanon, and from there, to London.
Saleem is currently awaiting a ruling on an appeal from Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council. The Hannas are expected to be acquitted, with Saleem and her legal team accusing Iraqi courts of corruption and of “rigging” the process.
Saleem has pinned part of the blame on Warda and other Christian leaders in Iraq, including Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and all the East Ignatius Joseph III Yonan; Mar Georges III Younan, Patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East; and Bishop Athanasios Toma Dawud of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the UK.
It is common in Iraq, where local leadership is often lacking and deemed untrustworthy, for church leaders to take up prominent roles in local communities, becoming points of reference akin to a governor or a mayor for towns or regional areas, and therefore developing a working relationship with everyone.
Saleem has accused Warda, in particular, of intervening on the Hanna’s behalf through a bribe to the prime minister, and she also claims she was pressured by Warda personally to drop her complaint against the Hannas.
Her legal team in on Feb. 13 filed a lawsuit in Virginia against the Iraqi judge Faiq Zidan, Warda, and a series of senior government officials under the United States Anti-Terrorism and Torture Victims Protection Acts, accusing them of “brutal acts of extortion, kidnapping, torture, and attempted murder.”
Most of her claims against Warda are he-said-she-said, however, Saleem has said a series of exchanges with Warda on WhatsApp in March 2023, which Crux has seen, were intended to pressure her to water down her legal complaint.
She said Warda contacted her regarding her attempts to reach a settlement with the Hanna brothers, before they were sentenced. After a phone conversation, she sent him a copy of a settlement proposal, which he then forwarded to the brothers.
In response, Warda sent her an audio note in which he advises her to take out a portion saying that the Hannas had acted on the loan without her knowledge, saying this portion would be turned against her, “because you claim that a sum of money was withdrawn in your name and you didn’t know what was going on.”
“It is my impression that this is an exaggeration,” he said in the audio message, saying he thought that claim would be used against her.
Saleem claims this was a veiled attempt by Warda to water down her complaint, an instinct she has said was reinforced by a subsequent phone conversation in which she felt pressured by Warda to settle for less money.
In her lawsuit filed in a Virginia court this year, dated Feb. 13, 2025, and which Crux has seen, Saleem includes Warda among the individuals she is suing on grounds that they maintain “worldwide networks of trade and smuggling that do business in the United States.”
Interecclesial tensions
Saleem’s inclusion of Warda in her lawsuit comes amid ongoing tensions within the Chaldean Catholic Church, the largest of Iraq’s various Christian communities.
Warda in the past has faced questions over his ties with political elites such as Rayan al-Kildani, the leader of an Iranian-funded Babylon Brigades’ militia, and its political wing, the Babylon Movement party.
Al-Kildani, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government for human rights violations in 2019, is a Chaldean Catholic at odds with Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako, who has accused al-Kildani of sectarianism warmongering. Sako has accused Warda of befriending al-Kildani to boost his profile and status.
Amid a heated ongoing back-and-forth dispute between the two, Warda has issued various statements appearing to back al-Kildani, leading to a growing feud between Warda and Sako as the latter prepares to retire, and Warda is seen as a favorite to take his place as patriarch.
The tension between Sako and Warda has reportedly kept Sako in office, refusing to retire as internal divisions continue to foment in the Chaldean church.
As his feud continues to play out, Warda now faces the added pressure of a federal lawsuit and increased questions about his relationships as the Chaldean church struggles to plan a vision for its future in Iraq.
A knowledgeable source close to the archdiocese has denied the allegations against Warda, labelling the charges as “nonsensical fabrications.”
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen