Iraq has returned a “portion” of $2.5 billion fraudulently withdrawn from a treasury bank account, the prime minister announced on Sunday, calling on all those involved in the scandal to surrender and return the stolen state funds, AFP reported.

Mohamed Chia al-Sudani announced that one of the businessmen involved in the case, Noor Zuhair Jassem, had returned just over $125 million of the more than $1 billion he “admitted” to receiving.

According to Sudani, the businessman will be released on bail in exchange for the return of the rest of the stolen money within two weeks.

The case, which was reported in mid-October, sparked outrage in oil-rich Iraq, which is plagued by rampant corruption.

The Treasury Department document explains that $2.5 billion was received between September 2021 and August 2022 through 247 checks cashed by five companies. The money was then withdrawn in cash from the accounts of these companies, whose owners, most of whom are fugitives, are under arrest warrants.

“Competent authorities managed to collect the first tranche of 182.6 billion Iraqi dinars,” more than $125 million, Sudani said.

He was giving a televised speech surrounded by stacks of bank notes stacked in bundles. The money was returned by Noor Zuhair Jassem, who was detained at the end of October at the Baghdad airport while trying to leave the country on a private plane.