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A detailed analysis of Saddam Hussein's secret money-laundering techniques shows here for the first time how he used the same offshore money launderers as Osama bin Laden. That covert money network, based in the tax havens of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Panama and Nassau, helped bankroll the war machines of both Iraq and al-Qaeda. More than 1,000 pages of confidential corporate, bank and legal documents show how the network functioned. The papers come from court cases filed in several European countries, from corporate records, from investigations by Italian police, from a report of the Kroll international investigative agency, and from private sources....

KUWAIT CITY (AP) -- U.S. administrators in Iraq have frozen records of a U.N. aid program to help investigators looking into possible corruption during the Saddam Hussein era, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saturday during a stopover in Kuwait. U.S. congressional investigators have charged that Saddam's regime amassed $10 billion through oil smuggling, illegal surcharges and kickbacks from the United Nations' 1996-2002 oil-for-food program. An Iraqi newspaper has published a list of about 270 former Cabinet officials, legislators, political activists and journalists in about 46 countries suspected of profiting from the scam. "We are concerned, deeply concerned, that money...

Search for Saddam's stashed millions remains futile Press Trust of India Washington, February 20 The search for between $2 and 40 billion that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein reportedly stashed away has proven to be as elusive as the search for weapons of mass destruction. The US has recovered almost nothing of the billions Hussein and his family supposedly squirreled away after a hunt of nearly a year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Treasury had reported Saddam's hidden funds, but nothing has been traced so far. Jeremy P Carver, a British attorney who represented Kuwait in its damage claims...

<p>BERN, Switzerland -- The United States thinks it has found at least $300 million that Saddam Hussein hid in banks, yet it doesn't have enough evidence to get countries such as Syria and Switzerland to hand over the money, U.S. and European officials said.</p>

BERN, Switzerland - The United States believes it has found at least $300 million Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) hid in banks, yet doesn't have enough evidence to get countries such as Syria and Switzerland to hand over the money, U.S. and European officials told The Associated Press. The funds at stake could go to the Iraq (news - web sites) insurgency or the country's reconstruction — depending on who gets it first. What troubles investigators more is that much of Saddam's cash may already be gone. The weak U.S. intelligence and the slow-moving investigation, now in its 11th...

<p>PARIS — Syria's Central Bank and the Medina Bank in Lebanon are holding at least $2 billion in cash, as well as gold bullion and platinum, that was smuggled out of Iraq, according to a letter written on the stationery of the Syrian army's intelligence department.</p>

Saddam Hussein hid his 35 billion pounds fortune with the Queen's banker Coutts and Co and 17 other London banks, the ousted Iraqi leader has admitted during his interrogation by British intelligence agencies, a media report said in London on Sunday. Saddam has confirmed that he took bulk of the fortune from the Central Bank of Iraq, transferred it to banks in the West Asia and then deposited it under false names in London, according to the Sunday Express. Later, the money was transferred to banks in Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Bulgaria. A spokesman for Coutts said: "We have not...

<p>AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Saddam Hussein withdrew $2 billion from Iraqi banks last spring, including a sizable withdrawal a week after the fall of Baghdad, according to a member of the Iraq Governing Council.</p> <p>Dr. Iyad Allawi -- in an interview with CNN Tuesday -- elaborated on reports published Monday in two Arabic newspapers on what he says interrogators are learning from Saddam since his capture earlier this month.</p>

<p>December 30, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein is starting to 'fess up about the whereabouts of up to $40 billion he stole from Iraq, and has admitted that some of it is hidden in Switzerland, Japan and Germany, a top Iraqi official says. "Saddam has confessed the names of the people he told to keep the money, and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in London.</p>

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Saddam Hussein has acknowledged depositing billions of dollars abroad before his ouster and has given interrogators the names of people who know where the money is, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said in remarks published Monday. The U.S.-appointed council estimates that the Iraqi dictator seized $40 billion while in power and is now searching for that amount deposited in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries, Iyad Allawi told the London-based Arab newspapers Al-Hayat and Asharq al-Awsat. "Saddam has started to give information on money that has been looted from Iraq and deposited abroad," Allawi...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein has given his U.S. captors information on hidden weapons and as much as $40 billion (22.5 billion pounds) he may have seized while he was Iraq's president, an Iraqi official has been quoted as saying. "Saddam has confessed the names of people he told to keep the money and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily. "The Governing Council is searching for $40 billion worth of funds seized by Saddam when he was...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein has given his U.S. captors information on hidden weapons and as much as $40 billion (22.5 billion pounds) he may have seized while he was Iraq's president, an Iraqi official has been quoted as saying. "Saddam has confessed the names of people he told to keep the money and he gave names of those who have information on equipment and weapons warehouses," Iyad Allawi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily. "The Governing Council is searching for $40 billion worth of funds seized by Saddam when he was...

<p>December 5, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein has tens of billions of dollars stashed in foreign bank accounts and is likely using the war chest to fund attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, a former aide said yesterday. Jewad Hashem, who was Iraq's planning minister in the 1960s and '70s, said in a new book being excerpted in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the ousted Iraqi dictator skimmed 5 percent of Iraq's oil revenues for two decades and deposited the money abroad.</p>

The Associated Press CAIRO, Egypt Dec. 4 — Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein might still have stashed away in foreign banks tens of billions of dollars that he skimmed for years from oil revenues, a former Iraqi minister said, according to a London-based Arabic newspaper. Jewad Hashem, Iraq's planning minister in the late 1960s and early '70s who now lives in Canada, said that 5 percent of oil revenues was ordered deposited abroad in accounts under Saddam's supervision when Iraq nationalized its oil industry in 1972. Hashem's assertion is in his autobiography, which is being excerpted in the Asharq Al-Awsat...

They haven't coughed it up yet, but Washington is pressuring Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Switzerland to fork over to Iraq's new government millions in assets hidden in banks there by ex-prez Saddam Hussein. In Syria alone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents uncovered $260 million in hidden Iraqi assets.

America believes that up to $3 billion of Saddam Hussein's loot is stashed away in Syrian government-controlled banks, a senior US official said yesterday.   Saddam was once named by Forbes magazine as the third richest ruler in the world It has asked Damascus to surrender the money for fear it is used by Ba'ath Party diehards to pay for attacks on coalition troops in Iraq, the official told Time magazine.With tension between the two countries rising dramatically, Syria has publicly denied the accusation. But it is said to have claimed privately that unnamed accounts have been frozen.Since Saddam's...

Since the fall of Baghdad in April, American officials have scoured the globe in search of Saddam Hussein's legendary fortune. Now they think they have found a big chunk. According to a U.S. estimate, as much as $3 billion in Iraqi assets is sitting in Syrian government- controlled banks, a senior U.S. official tells Time, and Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters. For months the U.S. has quietly insisted that Damascus give up the funds. Secretary of State Colin Powell met...

NEW YORK: US officials believe they have found a big chunk of Saddam Hussein "legendary fortune" and that as much as three billion dollars in Iraqi assets are lying in Syrian-controlled banks, a media report said. "Washington is anxious to determine that the money is not funding violence against Americans in Iraq, or being drawn down by regime officials and supporters", the Time Magazine says. Since the fall of Baghdad in April, the report says, American officials have scoured the globe in search of Saddam Hussein's legendary fortune. For months, the report says, the US has quietly insisted that Damascus...

France: Saddam funded planned killings PARIS (AP) -- An Iranian opposition group under scrutiny in France planned to assassinate former members suspected of betraying the movement, a report by France's counter-intelligence agency claims. The report by the agency known as the DST also said the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, recently discussed getting its supporters to commit suicide to draw attention to their cause. A London-based spokesman for the group said it rejects "every single allegation" in the DST report. Several Mujahedeen Khalq supporters throughout Europe lit themselves on fire after French agents raided the group last week. Two women --...

GENEVA (AP) - Iraqi assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been found in European and Middle Eastern banks in a global search for Saddam Hussein's riches, but little if anything has his name on it. Lebanon, Britain and Switzerland have each found about half a billion dollars in Iraqi assets, but it is not clear to whom the money belongs beyond official Iraqi government accounts. "There's no way Saddam Hussein would have opened an account in his own name," said James Nason of the Swiss Bankers Association, whose members are required to report any suspicious accounts to the...

Deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein stashed a fortune worth more than 1.13 billion Swiss francs ($1.28 billion) in Switzerland, a Swiss newspaper said today. The business weekly Cash said the hoard included 300 kg of gold bars, which has a market value of Sfr4.5 million ($5.1 million), in an account with the gold refinery Metalor in Neuchatel. The Swiss National Bank also said Sfr386 million ($435 million) were lodged in Swiss accounts in Iraq's name, Cash reported. The Bank for International Settlements in Basle said it had frozen Sfr750 million ($845 million) belonging to the former Iraqi regime. The Metalor...

Zurich - About $3.5m worth of Iraqi gold is currently sitting in the vaults of a metals processing company in Switzerland, a Swiss weekly reported on Friday. The Iraqi embassy in Switzerland sent about 300kg of gold bullion to the Neuchatel-based company in 1991, according to the business magazine Cash. It said the head of the company, Hans-Juerg Schaer, had confirmed that Metalor, which specialises in smelting and reprocessing precious metals, still had the gold, the requivalent of 4.5 million Swiss francs or three million euros. Some 386 million Swiss francs in deposits made by Iraqis are being held by...

Saddam's missing billions and link to al-Qaida Julian Borger in Washington Wednesday April 16, 2003 The Guardian In the days before the fall of Baghdad, and the explosion of looting on the streets of the capital, a far more damaging form of looting was already under way as Iraqi bank accounts were ransacked and millions of dollars were transferred into private accounts abroad, Middle Eastern banking sources said yesterday. The flurry of transfers that have been spotted, going mainly through Europe to accounts in Jordanian and Palestinian banks, are thought to be the tip of a vast financial iceberg, kept...

SCATTERED AMONG the loose papers and bound files unearthed last week at the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad was "letter no. 140/4/5," labeled "Confidential and Personal" and addressed to "The President's Office--Secretariat." The letter concerns George Galloway, a pro-Saddam member of the British Parliament, who founded a charity known as the Mariam Appeal, ostensibly to aid Iraqi children suffering under U.N. sanctions. The missive, from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, is a request that money be funneled directly to Galloway. It reads in part: His projects and future plans for the benefit of [Iraq] need financial support to become a motive...

Experts fear state funds were moved to middlemen who also acted for terror groups In the days before the fall of Baghdad, and the explosion of looting on the streets of the capital, a far more damaging form of looting was already under way as Iraqi bank accounts were ransacked and millions of dollars were transferred into private accounts abroad, Middle Eastern banking sources said yesterday. The flurry of transfers that have been spotted, going mainly through Europe to accounts in Jordanian and Palestinian banks, are thought to be the tip of a vast financial iceberg, kept afloat by Saddam...

Tracking Saddam's Billions CBS News 2 March 2003 Should he flee an allied invasion, life on the lam would be pretty cushy for Saddam Hussein. According to a financial investigator interviewed by CBS 60 Minutes Correspondent Steve Kroft, the value of the Iraqi dictator's holdings stashed around the world is expected to grow by $2.5 billion this year. Financial sleuth John Fawcett tells 60 Minutes that his investigation of wealth controlled by Saddam Hussein found assets estimated at between $10 and $20 billion, mostly skimmed from the sales of Iraqi oil. His holdings include American magazines, such as Elle, Car...

LONDON - A retired banker living in Switzerland spent 10 years helping Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hide millions of dollars via a bank account under the name of Satan, Britain's Sunday Times reported. Elio Borradori, 75, funnelled millions of dollars in "commissions" and "consultancy fees" into companies controlled by Saddam's appointees, operating through Panama, the Bahamas and Switzerland, according to the report. US officials estimate Saddam channelled between four and seven billion pounds (6.3 and 11 billion dollars, 4.9 and 10.2 billion euros) into accounts around the world, which must now be tracked down. Downing Street has estimated Saddam's riches...

A RETIRED banker living in Switzerland spent 10 years helping Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hide millions of dollars via a bank account under the name of Satan, Britain's Sunday Times has reported. Elio Borradori, 75, funnelled millions of dollars in "commissions" and "consultancy fees" into companies controlled by Saddam's appointees, operating through Panama, the Bahamas and Switzerland, according to the report. US officials estimate Saddam channelled between $10 billion and $18 billion into accounts around the world, which must now be tracked down. The British government today estimated Saddam's riches could total as much as $33 billion. One of Saddam's...

The hunt is on for billions of dollars in ill-gotten assets accumulated by the family of Saddam Hussein, now believed to be scattered in a labyrinthine network of front companies and secret bank accounts from Panama to Switzerland to Jordan. As U.S. forces moved into Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, investigators reported signs of large sums of money moving from Iraqi government-controlled accounts to private accounts in the Middle East. "People with connections are trying to loot what they can," said one private investigator with access to information about money flows around the region. < SNIP > One of the...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. and its allies have located $1.2 billion of assets controlled by Saddam Hussein's regime that could be used to help rebuild war-torn Iraq, according to a Treasury Department spokesman. The Treasury won't provide details about which countries are holding the newly found assets, which include currency, real estate and diamonds held in the names of entities controlled by Mr. Hussein and senior members of his government. But the money probably will be used to pay Iraqi salaries and pensions, as well as to provide humanitarian aid, the spokesman said.The assets are in addition to the $1.74...

It will take tens of billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq. It is not clear where all that money will come from, but there is a way to chop a chunk from the total tab: track down Saddam Hussein's personal fortune. Saddam Hussein has long been suspected of siphoning off his country's riches The Iraqi leader is thought to have stashed away between $6bn and $30bn in bank accounts and investments around the world. Of course, there are some problems regarding getting hold of that cash. Hunting the cash It was only late last month that the Bush administration launched...

Search for Saddam's Wealth Gains Speed By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS .c The Associated Press GENEVA (AP) - Now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, the race is on to find the billions he is believed to have secretly stashed outside Iraq. Estimates of the Iraqi leader's wealth range from $2 billion to $40 billion. But experts say it has been so effectively hidden - from Latin America to Asia - that the real amount may never be known. ``There is a network of money that has been sent out of the country and it has been given to...

Is money the root of most wars? Beyond lofty debates on peace vs. democracy, national sovereignty vs. anti-terrorism, the war to topple Saddam Hussein and his regime is also rooted in realpolitik and conflicting economic interests. It has now become fashionable for anti-war activists to oversimplify issues and demonize America for its war in Iraq as driven by its huge appetite for oil. What about the preponderance of reports that France and other anti-Iraq war countries are equally motivated by economic interests? How will the timid and politically clumsy Philippine government position the nation in this fast-changing geopolitical configuration, and...

<p>WASHINGTON -- It has been dubbed "Saddam Inc.," a mysterious, multibillion-dollar empire that is said to have allowed Saddam Hussein and his sons to methodically stash away stolen riches in secret bank accounts around the globe.</p> <p>Now, as the American military moves closer to toppling Saddam's regime in Baghdad, U.S. Treasury officials and intelligence agencies say they are scoring new successes in their effort to unravel and seize Saddam's hidden wealth.</p>