Iraqi mobile phone company AsiaCell said Saturday that four businessmen, including the CEO of investment firm MerchantBridge & Co., were among seven people killed in a plane crash Friday in the country’s north.
AsiaCell said in statement Saturday that three were guests of the fourth, an AsiaCell board member, Basil Rahim.
Rahim also was founder and CEO of London investment firm MerchantBridge & Co. Another MerchantBridge executive, Abdallah Lahoud, died in the crash, along with JP Morgan employees Morad Michal and Javier Zurita.
The crew — two Jordanians and a Lebanese — were also killed.
“Basil was an Iraqi investor that deeply loved his people and his country. He was an example of intelligence, loyalty and devotion and his loss will be truly felt across Iraq,” Asiacell said in a statement.
MerchantBridge and JP Morgan could not be reached for comment Saturday.
The small plane’s engine caught on fire shortly after taking off from the Sulaimaniyah airport in northern Iraq, officials said. Airport head Tahir Abdullah Qadir said the initial investigation indicated the plane had mechanical problems before crashing. It was headed to the Turkish capital of Ankara.
Sulaimaniyah is 160 miles (260 kilometres) northeast of Baghdad.
MerchantBridge was created in 1998 under the name Safron Group. It had $50 million in capital fully invested in Turkey, Morocco and Egypt. It changed its name to MerchantBridge in 2001 after a management buyout of the group and expanded a year later into corporate finance, government advisory and European direct investments.
It opened an office in Baghdad in 2003.