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US officials in a fix after finding dollars in Iraq
Washington, Apr 23: Piles of US currency, hundreds of millions of dollars so far, are being found in Iraq, even though the country has been under economic sanctions for nearly 13 years.
Washington, Apr 23: Piles of US currency, hundreds of millions of dollars so far, are being found in Iraq, even though the country has been under economic sanctions for nearly 13 years.
Investigators--on the ground in Iraq and in the US—are trying to track the money back to where it came from, a herculean task, both officials and outside experts say.
The experts say there are plenty of possibilities, including oil and cash smuggling schemes, illegal trade deals, sham businesses and a web of middlemen located outside the country to conceal the true destination of the funds. "Identifying a money trail can be very difficult to do. That`s why it is so essential that some documentation of financial records is discovered. Then investigators can go backward and trace the movements of the funds," said Jimmy Gurule, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Investigators also are looking into whether any of the cash found in Iraq was counterfeited. "We are working with the military to authenticate the seized currency," said John Gill, a spokesman for the secret service, which handles counterfeiting investigations.
In Baghdad, US soldiers--trying to stop looting -- discovered more than USD 600 million in tightly wrapped packets of new 100 dollar bills hidden behind a false wall, US military officials said yesterday. The USD 100 bill is the most counterfeited us note outside the United States. In a neighbourhood along the Tigris river, where senior Ba’ath Party and Republican Guard officials lived, US forces found some USD 656 million, the Los Angeles Time reported last week.
Bureau Report
The experts say there are plenty of possibilities, including oil and cash smuggling schemes, illegal trade deals, sham businesses and a web of middlemen located outside the country to conceal the true destination of the funds. "Identifying a money trail can be very difficult to do. That`s why it is so essential that some documentation of financial records is discovered. Then investigators can go backward and trace the movements of the funds," said Jimmy Gurule, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Investigators also are looking into whether any of the cash found in Iraq was counterfeited. "We are working with the military to authenticate the seized currency," said John Gill, a spokesman for the secret service, which handles counterfeiting investigations.
In Baghdad, US soldiers--trying to stop looting -- discovered more than USD 600 million in tightly wrapped packets of new 100 dollar bills hidden behind a false wall, US military officials said yesterday. The USD 100 bill is the most counterfeited us note outside the United States. In a neighbourhood along the Tigris river, where senior Ba’ath Party and Republican Guard officials lived, US forces found some USD 656 million, the Los Angeles Time reported last week.
Bureau Report