Saddam 'took tractor-loads of cash from bank'
Saddam Hussein ordered that nearly $1bn (€882m) be taken from Iraq’s Central Bank shortly before the United States began bombing Baghdad and sent his son Qusai to grab the cash in the middle of the night, a newspaper reported today.
The amount of money – some $900m (€794.4m) in US $100 bills and €88m (in euro notes) – was so large it had to be taken from the bank in three tractor trailers, The New York Times reported.
Qusai, Saddam’s younger son, and Abid al-Haimd Mahmood, Saddam’s personal assistant, organised the removal of the cash, the Times report said, quoting an anonymous Iraqi banking official.
The operation, which the Iraqi official said took place at 4am on March 18, was confirmed by US Treasury official George Mullinax, who is assigned to help rebuild Iraq’s banking system. Mullinax told the Times that about $900m (€794.4m) was taken by “Saddam Hussein’s people”.
It was not known where the money was taken. The Iraqi official said it amounted to a quarter of the Central Bank’s hard currency reserves.
A US Army Special Forces officer, Colonel Ted Seel, said intelligence indicated that a convoy of tractor trailers crossed the border into Syria, but that the contents of the trucks was unknown, the Times report said.
Mullinax told the newspaper it was possible that much of the money had already been recovered.
He said the roughly $650m (€573.7m) found by US forces in one of Saddam’s palaces last month might have been from the Central Bank.
The Iraqi official, however, felt the money found in the palace did not come from that Central Bank raid but belonged to Saddam’s oldest son Odai, whom he said was known for hoarding large sums of cash.
The newspaper said the $1bn (€882m) taken by Saddam was nearly twice the amount looted by Iraqis from the bank after the April 9 collapse of Saddam’s regime.
