Nadhmi Auchi

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Nadhmi Auchi (Arabic:نظمي أوجي), born in 1937, is a British-resident, Iraqi-born billionaire. He is believed to have a net worth of around £1.4 billion, which would make him Britain's 22nd wealthiest individual.

Auchi graduated in Economics and Political Science from the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development. In 1979 he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA in Luxembourg. Auchi was Vice-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University between 1996 and 2000. He has been president of the Anglo-Arab Organisation since its founding in 2002.

In November, 2003, Auchi was given a two-year sentence for his involvement in the Elf scandal, " "the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War" according to The Guardian. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments" ^[1] A French court found Nadhmi Auchi guilty of accepting £50 million worth of illegal commissions. He was also fined £1.4 million. The "Guardian" also noted that Nadhmi Auchi had helped Orascom (which owns Djezzy GSM), owned by Onsi Sawiris (worth $5.2 billion with his family according to Forbes ^[2], gain a contract to set-up mobile phone networks in post-Saddam's Iraq. Moreover, as owner of the General Mediterranean Holdings, Auchi is the largest private share-holder of BNP Paribas, which until 2001 had the escrow account through which the money from the Oil-for-Food programme transited.