A first-time meeting, brought together the Iraqi side presided by, Judge Raheem Hassen Al-Uqailee, the Acting Commissioner ofthe COI, and representatives of the World Bank and the UNDC, regarding STAR initiative, to look at the issue of retrieving Iraq stolen funds, was held in the COI headquarter on 26 May.
The meeting was sponsored by the UNDC and the WB to assist countries in retrieving their out-of-country smuggled money. It is also noted that Iraq has joined this initiative at the beginning of this year, after obtaining the approval of the Prime Minister, Mr. Maliki; Economic Affairs Committee led by Dr. Berhem Saleh, the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Committee of Retrieving Onboard Funds led by Financial Minister.
The Iraqi side had five special demands concerning STAR, whether before 2003 or after it:
      1.To assist with information about the whereabouts of money.
      2.To assist in providing evidence of the possession of Iraqi money.
      3.To assist in building capacity and training.
     4.To coordinate with states where Iraq stolen money are.
     5.To provide legal advice. The Iraqi side represented by Economic Affairs Committee, Ministry of Finance, Committee of Retrieving Onboard Funds, Central Bank of Iraq, Money-laundering Reporting Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs attended the meeting. The STAR initiative has been launched by WB and the UNDC, as an international tool to aid states in getting back out -of -country stolen or embezzled money throughout:
      1.Identifying the whereabouts of the money.
      2.Helping these countries in building their capacity in disclosing suspicious transactions, and illegal gains.
      3.Requesting international aid in gathering evidences, investigations, prosecution, freezing, seizure and confiscation.
The STAR doesn`t require financial cost, any terms or restrictions on how to spend the returning money, but for transparency purpose.