Lebanon Recovers L300M Of Saddam's Stash

Ananova ^ | 5-14-2003

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Lebanon recovers £300m of Saddam's stash

Lebanon's central bank has located and secured £307 million in Iraqi funds, a Treasury official said.

David Aufhauser, general counsel in the Treasury Department, said the disclosure by Lebanon was a sign of the progress being made in the worldwide search for Saddam's assets.

Aufhauser told the House Financial Services oversight subcommittee that the assets in Lebanon apparently came from Iraq's central bank and other sources.

The United States has stressed that all recovered assets will be used to help the people of Iraq and rebuild the country. Much of the money was taken by Saddam and his family after the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iraq following the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Aufhauser said that trying to pin down how much Saddam amassed before being driven from power was "wild-eyed guesstimating." Estimates run from £1.24 billion to £24.9 billion, and it is not known how much of that wealth still exists, he said.

The General Accounting Office, the investigating arm of Congress, has conservatively estimated that Saddam skimmed £4.1 billion in illegal revenue from oil smuggling and kickbacks connected to the UN oil-for-food program.

E Anthony Wayne, assistant secretary for economic and business affairs at the State Department, said the United States has reached out to about 30 countries that froze Iraqi assets after the first Gulf War, and has contacted some 20 others where Iraqi assets might be hidden. In addition to State and Treasury, the departments of Justice, Defence and Homeland Security are involved in the effort to identify hidden bank accounts and front companies.

President George W Bush, using new authority under the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act, directed in March that 1.7 billion in Iraqi assets - frozen by the United States since 1991 - be deposited in a special account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Some 90 million from that fund has been authorised for such purposes as helping Iraqi pensioners and paying the salaries of Iraqi civil servants, dockworkers and oil workers needed to restore Iraq's infrastructure.

© Associated Press

Story filed: 20:20 Wednesday 14th May 2003