Saddam trucked out $1 billion, newspaper says
The money — some $900 million in U.S. $100 bills and $100 million in euros — was taken from the bank in three tractor trailers. Saddam's younger son, Qusai, and Saddam's personal assistant, Abid al-Haimd Mahmood, organized the removal of the cash on Saddam's orders, the Times report said.
The operation, which took place at 4 a.m. March 18, was confirmed by U.S. Treasury official George Mullinax, who is assigned to help rebuild Iraq's banking system. Mullinax told The Times that about $900 million was taken by "Saddam Hussein's people."
A U.S. Army Special Forces officer, Col. 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.
In the hunt for Saddam's billions, investigators have identified five networks of more than 100 companies used to launder money skimmed from Iraqi oil sales.
Saddam's regime set up shell companies in Switzerland, Jordan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Panama, according to investigators. Those company networks and their banking affiliations were used to enrich the former Iraqi strongman, his sons and other family members.
"Ultimately, the money was stolen from the Iraqi people," said Taylor Griffin, spokesman for the Treasury Department, which is heading the government's laundering probe along with U.S. Customs, the Secret Service and various intelligence agencies.
Last month, investigators isolated $1.2 billion in previously unknown assets outside Iraq, Griffin said. The assets include cash, real estate and diamonds held in the names of the companies Saddam controlled.
With names such as Jaraco SA and Dynatrade SA, the companies used major banks in Switzerland, France, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to conduct transactions, according to investigators.
The intricate web was managed at the top by about 20 of Saddam's relatives and friends, who spent most of their time outside Iraq.
The mastermind of the vast criminal enterprise was believed to be Saddam's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti. Now in U.S. custody, he could provide a road map to Saddam's hidden wealth.
Hasan, the five of clubs in the U.S. deck of most-wanted Iraqis, was Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva for 10 years, ending in 1998.
A second manager was Tariq Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, according to a Treasury Department source. Aziz, also in U.S. custody, traveled widely under diplomatic immunity.
One clue as to the size of Saddam's laundered legacy was found two weeks ago — $780 million in makeshift vaults in a palace compound and $112 million in dog kennels on the grounds.
The cash was in $100 bills, and in the dog kennels there were 200 aluminum boxes with $4 million in each box, all sealed with tags that read Bank of Jordan.
Sulfur and fertilizer exports and imports of tobacco and alcoholic beverages were among the items subject to rake-offs, according to the British Foreign Office and the Coalition for International Justice.
Saddam also fleeced pilgrims to Iraqi Shiite shrines in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, making them travel in buses owned by the Al-Hoda company, controlled by Saddam's son Odai, and stay in designated hotels. A nine-day pilgrimage costs at least $900, much of which went to Saddam's family, according to the coalition.
But the principal source of the regime's skimmed revenue was oil exports, including more than $6.6 billion from the United Nations-sponsored oil-for-food program, General Accounting Office investigators found.