By Diplomatic Magazine
Diplomatic Magazine publishes the names of billionaires, the amount of their money and the names of their companies and businesses.
According to diplomatic investigations in Southern Kurdistan, no one can become a billionaire with money alone, what is there is related to the valuation of projects and properties in general and within the group of companies.
There are currently 13 billionaires and 10,000 millionaires in Kurdistan, and they are divided as follows:
1. Sheikh Baz Karim, owner of the KAR Group, has a fortune of $7.9 billion and works in the oil and gold sectors.
Sheikh Baz has doubled his fortune in the past three years and owns the KRG oil pipeline, the Khurmala oil field and the Khabat refinery in Erbil.
2. Sheikh Fakher and his brothers are the owners of the Qaiwan Group, their wealth is $6 billion. They work in oil, housing, gold imports, pharmaceuticals, food marketing, transportation companies, and other businesses.
Sheikh Fakher owns the residential cities, which are Qaiwan, and Sulaymaniyah Heights, Bazian Refinery, Qaiwan University and Schools, and a number of medical communities and cities.
3. Ahmed Ismail, owner of Mass Group, his fortune is estimated at $5.8 billion. He works in the fields of electricity, iron, cement, refineries and many other commercial projects.
Ahmed Ismail is the main supplier of electricity to all of Iraq and Kurdistan, 35% of the cement industry and 43% of the iron industry throughout Iraq.
4. Farouq Mulla Mustafa, owner of the Farouq Holding Group, has an estimated fortune of $4.4 billion. He works in the fields of communications, transportation, housing, tourism and medicine.
Farouq Mulla Mustafa owns large stakes in Asiacell, Faruq Hospital, Pioneer Pharmaceutical Company, several residential cities, and many commercial buildings and hotels.
Farouq Mulla Mustafa invested most of his wealth in Kurdistan and Sulaymaniyah and has a few projects outside Kurdistan and Sulaymaniyah.
5. Sirwan Barzani, owner of Korek Telecom and Darin Group, his fortune is estimated at $3.9 billion and works in the areas of communications, housing and tourism.
Sirwan Barzani owns 75% of Korek Telecom, the Korek Mountain Tourist Project and several residential cities.
6. Hadi Nazir and Brothers, owner of UB Holding Group, have a fortune of $3.2 billion and work in the areas of housing, roads and other businesses.
Hadi owns Iraq Oil, Class Cola, Life Water, Rixos Duhok Hotel, and many commercial buildings.
7. Aso Bamuki, owner of the Halabja Group, whose fortune is estimated at $3 billion, works in the field of communications and transportation.
Haji Muhammad Bamuki and his brothers own 25% of Korek Telecom and several transport ships in the Gulf waters, in addition to several residential cities and a large share in the Family Mall and many other food companies.
Aso Bamuki is one of the Kurdish businessmen who invested all his wealth in the Kurdistan Region and has no business or investment activities outside Kurdistan.
8. Azad Haji Yahya and his brothers, the owner of the Cihan Group, their fortune is estimated at 2.7 billion dollars and they work in the field of cars, education, universities and food business.
The sons of Haji Yahya, owners of Toyota Iraq, universities, schools and international banks, are agents of rice and tea in Cihan.
9. Peshraw Agha Dzeyi, owner of the Falcon Group, their fortune is estimated at $2.5 billion and they work in the field of housing and security.
10- Ghafoor Khoshnaw, owner of the Khoshnaw Group, with a fortune of $2 billion, and works in the fields of e-commerce, electricity, transportation and housing.
11- Saad Fayeq Kollak and Hussein Mullah Salih Zergoezi own the Kollak Group, valued at about $1.5 billion.
12- Ahmadi Mulla Qader, owner of Hiwa Group, valued at about $1.2 billion
Ahmadi Mulla, also known as Ahmadi Majid, owns Majidi Mall projects in Kurdistan, as well as several other commercial projects such as the Dedaman Hotel and a large hospital in Erbil.
13. Khaled Khoshnaw, owner of Hemin Group, his fortune is estimated at one billion US dollars, owner of two Italian residential villages 1 and 2, works in roads and housing.
According to Mullah Yasin, spokesman of the Investors Union, there are 10,000 millionaires in Kurdistan, who have more than $5 million in assets according to the standards, ranging from $5 million to $200 million.
In total, these millionaires have about $ 38 billion and the number of those whose property reaches $ 1 million is much higher, because in some neighborhoods of Kurdistan, only the price of houses reaches $ 1 million.
The most important question is why the rich people of Kurdistan are not included in the list of billionaires of Forbes magazine, while more than 1,000 billionaires in the world and according to the magazine's ranking of the rich people, Kurdistan is ranked 450th richest in the world.
According to Diplomatic Magazine, this is due to several reasons, the main one is that Forbes has removed Iraq, Iran and some other countries from the list because they are not linked to the World Bank system, their money is exchanged outside the World Bank system, and are many suspicions of money laundering.
The second point is that Kurdistan's capitalists own the wealth with projects, properties and houses, not cash, which has not legally passed through the banking system.