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Ziyad Cattan is a dual citizen of Poland and Iraq. He earned a PhD in Economics. During the twenty years he lived in Poland Cattan operated both a used car and a pizza companies.

According to an article published in The Independent, on 19 September 2005, Hazim al-Shaalan, the Defence Minister of Iyad Allawi's interim administration, appointed Ziyad Cattan, as the Defence Ministry's procurement chief. The Los Angeles Times reported that Cattan had been appointed by Iraq's American occupiers.

The Independent article describes massive fraud in the Defence Ministry's procurement, which it describes as "the greatest theft in history", which occurred under Cattan's watch. Of expenditures of between $US1 and 2 billion the article estimates only $US200 million worth of usable equipment were purchased.

In September 2005 The Independent reported that Cattan and his former boss Al-Shaalan, are both living in Jordan, and refusing comment. By November 2005 he had returned to Poland, and agreed to be interviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

In August 2007 The Guardian reported that Amnesty International and British Members of Parliament were pressing the UK Government for an explanation over Cattan's involvement with a British arms-dealing firm. The UK firm had a licence to import 40,000 surplus AK-47s from Yugoslavia, but had sent Yugoslavian weapons to Cattan, for Iraq. International regulations, to control the distribution of weapons, requires certification to confirm buyers were the end-users, and would not resell the weapons they received. The Guardian reported that the lack of compliant documentation meant that weapons sold to Cattan were now untraceable, and thus a breach of international arms agreements.

References

1. ^ "What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?". The Independent. 2005-09-19. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
2. ^ Solomon Moore, T. Christian Miller (2005-11-05). "Before Rearming Iraq, He Sold Shoes and Flowers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-08-23. By early 2004, as the U.S. moved toward handing sovereignty to the Iraqis, Cattan had caught the eye of American officials who were scrambling to build a new Defense Ministry. The U.S. was starting from scratch. Coalition advisors decided that civilians should lead the new ministry, but under Hussein, the Defense Ministry was run by military officers, meaning there was no pool of experienced Iraqis from which to draw.
3. Jamie Doward, Johnny McDevitt (2007-08-12). "British firm under scrutiny for export of Bosnian guns to Iraq". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-23. Documents obtained by The Observer show the British company, PMS, had a contract to provide assault rifles to Ziad Cattan, the former head of military procurement at the Iraq Defence Ministry.

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