Aiham Alsammarae was giddy. He had just escaped prison. Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, Iraq’s commissioner for public integrity, was investigating the former minister of electricity on a dozen charges. Radhi told Congress that $2 billion disappeared on Alsammarae’s watch.

The circumstances surrounding Alsammarae’s escape are the stuff of a spy novel. The New York Times reported that, when asked about his escape, Alsammarae “laughed uproariously for 20 seconds. Then, recycling a famous line from an exchange about Al Capone in The Untouchables, Alsammarae said with undisguised glee: ‘The Chicago way.'” Alsammarae had close connections to some in the U.S. government. He had earlier postured as a conduit to negotiate with insurgents, though this ultimately went nowhere.