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Counterfeit ring broken up in Baghdad: Pentagon
Washington, Oct 02: US military investigators have broken up a counterfeit ring in Baghdad in raids last month on printing shops that netted fake currency worth 100 billion dinars or roughly 50 million dollars, the Pentagon has said.
Washington, Oct 02: US military investigators have broken up a counterfeit ring in Baghdad in raids last month on printing shops that netted fake currency worth 100 billion
dinars or roughly 50 million dollars, the Pentagon has said.
An Iraqi newspaper editor, Amar Fadil Ramadan al-Kayse,
was arrested for allegedly printing and attempting to pass
forged 250 Iraqi dinar notes to the Central Bank of Iraq,
which is funded and operated by the US-led occupation
authority.
"Had we not stopped this counterfeit ring, it would have destabilized the Iraqi economy and postponed the day when economic and political order is restored to the people of Iraq," said Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz in a statement yesterday.
The Coalition Provisional Authority plans to introduce a new Iraqi dinar October 15 that will replace the existing currency and will be more difficult to counterfeit.
Agents from the US defence criminal investigative service and military police seized printing presses and 100 billion in fake dinars in raids September 18. The old Dinar trades at around 1,700 to 2,200 to the dollar.
Al Kayse owned and operated the Sarmad company for printing and worked as editor of Nuktat Dhaw, or spot light, a Baghdad newspaper, the Pentagon said.
"Had we not stopped this counterfeit ring, it would have destabilized the Iraqi economy and postponed the day when economic and political order is restored to the people of Iraq," said Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz in a statement yesterday.
The Coalition Provisional Authority plans to introduce a new Iraqi dinar October 15 that will replace the existing currency and will be more difficult to counterfeit.
Agents from the US defence criminal investigative service and military police seized printing presses and 100 billion in fake dinars in raids September 18. The old Dinar trades at around 1,700 to 2,200 to the dollar.
Al Kayse owned and operated the Sarmad company for printing and worked as editor of Nuktat Dhaw, or spot light, a Baghdad newspaper, the Pentagon said.
Bureau Report