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Authorities Look for Hussein's Money
Aired May 14, 2003 - 14:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Wherever Saddam Hussein may be roosting these days, one thing is for sure: his nest egg is massive. Like many an iron fisted dictator before him, Saddam racked up a personal fortune worth billions, and today the search for that money is every bit as intensive, if a bit less dramatic, than the search for Saddam himself.
CNN's Chris Huntington live from New York now with an update -- hi, Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good afternoon. Well, a congressional hearing today in Washington got a little bit under the surface of just what's going on with Saddam's money. In a nutshell, there is about close to $5 billion that authorities both here and overseas feel they have a handle on.
Now, appearing at the congressional hearing today, which was a subcommittee of the House Financial Services, there were officials from the Treasury Department, the State Department, and the Pentagon, basically giving a rundown of what they know so far, and where they think the process will go from here.
Let's take a look at the tally so far that authorities believe they have a handle on. There is at least $1.7 billion here in U.S. bank accounts. This is money that was largely frozen during the 1990s. That is firmly in the hand of U.S. authorities.
Now, there is about $950 million in cash that U.S. soldiers found over in Baghdad in the last couple days of this most recent conflict, of the most recent war, and this could be a huge find. I'll have more on that in just a second.
There's another total of about $2.2 billion overseas, some of it simply labeled as "identified" in bank accounts. Others is actually frozen.
The most recent amount of money, about $495 million turned over -- or at least turned up by Lebanese authorities, and they say that they will turn it right back over to the Iraqi people as soon as a mechanism is in place.
Now, as for the cash that was found by U.S. soldiers, this is a very interesting find, and one of the officials at the hearing today said that they believe this $950 million -- it's about $850 million U.S., 100 million in euros, may in fact be the bulk of the money that everybody thought Qusay Hussein had stolen. You will recall the reports of a convoy of trucks being loaded with cash to go somewhere for the benefit of Saddam, Qusay, and Uday Hussein. Well, the U.S. authorities now believe that they have turned up documentation that shows that the boxes that were uncovered by the soldiers was, in fact, the bulk of that shipment. So, apparently Qusay, if this is accurate, never made off with a billion dollars.
Now, as for how much money Saddam Hussein may actually have or may have amassed over the years, that, in the words of one official is a wild guesstimate. It's largely known and believed that he was skimming off of the U.N.'s oil for food system, the program there. The General Accounting Office estimated that in just four years, he probably skimmed at least $6 billion. The estimates, as you see there, go up to as high as $40 billion. The sort of conservative best guess in the middle is about $20 billion, but keep in mind, he spent an awful lot of that on lavish living, the palaces that we have seen, the yachts and so forth, and of course, weaponry and whatever else is out there is probably hidden in amongst 300 or so front companies around the world, and just scores of bank accounts. So Kyra, it will be very difficult to get the money that they have not already identified in major Western bank accounts.
PHILLIPS: Well, Chris, you say this money is going to go back into Iraq, but where exactly will it go? Will it be handed out to the people, will it go to the new government? Will it establish new businesses? What exactly will be done with it?
HUNTINGTON: Well, that's a very good question, and there is still a lot of work to be done on the mechanism for getting this money back to the Iraqi people. Now, part of a resolution that's before the U.N. would call for some sort of system to get this money in an organized fashion back to the Iraqi people, but the Bush administration is very clear that they believe all of this money that has turned up in bank accounts belongs to the Iraqi people. A small portion of it -- that is the money that has been seized here in the U.S. has already been used in a small way to help pay for the reconstruction, apparently it has gone to pay some dock workers in Umm Qasr.
But you ask a very valid question, and it is all part of the whole issue of how to reconstruct the Iraqi systems of government, and crucial to that, of course, is a banking system. And once that is in place and solid, this kind of repatriating of the Iraqi funds will be possible.
PHILLIPS: Well, Chris, I met those workers in Umm Qasr, and they were making 50 cents a day under the Saddam regime, so it is good to know that money will be going back there. Chris Huntington, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 14, 2003 - 14:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Wherever Saddam Hussein may be roosting these days, one thing is for sure: his nest egg is massive. Like many an iron fisted dictator before him, Saddam racked up a personal fortune worth billions, and today the search for that money is every bit as intensive, if a bit less dramatic, than the search for Saddam himself.
CNN's Chris Huntington live from New York now with an update -- hi, Chris.
CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, good afternoon. Well, a congressional hearing today in Washington got a little bit under the surface of just what's going on with Saddam's money. In a nutshell, there is about close to $5 billion that authorities both here and overseas feel they have a handle on.
Now, appearing at the congressional hearing today, which was a subcommittee of the House Financial Services, there were officials from the Treasury Department, the State Department, and the Pentagon, basically giving a rundown of what they know so far, and where they think the process will go from here.
Let's take a look at the tally so far that authorities believe they have a handle on. There is at least $1.7 billion here in U.S. bank accounts. This is money that was largely frozen during the 1990s. That is firmly in the hand of U.S. authorities.
Now, there is about $950 million in cash that U.S. soldiers found over in Baghdad in the last couple days of this most recent conflict, of the most recent war, and this could be a huge find. I'll have more on that in just a second.
There's another total of about $2.2 billion overseas, some of it simply labeled as "identified" in bank accounts. Others is actually frozen.
The most recent amount of money, about $495 million turned over -- or at least turned up by Lebanese authorities, and they say that they will turn it right back over to the Iraqi people as soon as a mechanism is in place.
Now, as for the cash that was found by U.S. soldiers, this is a very interesting find, and one of the officials at the hearing today said that they believe this $950 million -- it's about $850 million U.S., 100 million in euros, may in fact be the bulk of the money that everybody thought Qusay Hussein had stolen. You will recall the reports of a convoy of trucks being loaded with cash to go somewhere for the benefit of Saddam, Qusay, and Uday Hussein. Well, the U.S. authorities now believe that they have turned up documentation that shows that the boxes that were uncovered by the soldiers was, in fact, the bulk of that shipment. So, apparently Qusay, if this is accurate, never made off with a billion dollars.
Now, as for how much money Saddam Hussein may actually have or may have amassed over the years, that, in the words of one official is a wild guesstimate. It's largely known and believed that he was skimming off of the U.N.'s oil for food system, the program there. The General Accounting Office estimated that in just four years, he probably skimmed at least $6 billion. The estimates, as you see there, go up to as high as $40 billion. The sort of conservative best guess in the middle is about $20 billion, but keep in mind, he spent an awful lot of that on lavish living, the palaces that we have seen, the yachts and so forth, and of course, weaponry and whatever else is out there is probably hidden in amongst 300 or so front companies around the world, and just scores of bank accounts. So Kyra, it will be very difficult to get the money that they have not already identified in major Western bank accounts.
PHILLIPS: Well, Chris, you say this money is going to go back into Iraq, but where exactly will it go? Will it be handed out to the people, will it go to the new government? Will it establish new businesses? What exactly will be done with it?
HUNTINGTON: Well, that's a very good question, and there is still a lot of work to be done on the mechanism for getting this money back to the Iraqi people. Now, part of a resolution that's before the U.N. would call for some sort of system to get this money in an organized fashion back to the Iraqi people, but the Bush administration is very clear that they believe all of this money that has turned up in bank accounts belongs to the Iraqi people. A small portion of it -- that is the money that has been seized here in the U.S. has already been used in a small way to help pay for the reconstruction, apparently it has gone to pay some dock workers in Umm Qasr.
But you ask a very valid question, and it is all part of the whole issue of how to reconstruct the Iraqi systems of government, and crucial to that, of course, is a banking system. And once that is in place and solid, this kind of repatriating of the Iraqi funds will be possible.
PHILLIPS: Well, Chris, I met those workers in Umm Qasr, and they were making 50 cents a day under the Saddam regime, so it is good to know that money will be going back there. Chris Huntington, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
