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GIs Arrested In $1M Swag Snag - Army: 4 Dipped Into $700M Stash
By JONATHAN FOREMAN in Baghdad
The New York Post, April 22, 2003
Four sticky-fingered GIs have been arrested for trying to steal nearly $1
million of the $700 million in cold cash found hidden on the grounds of
several estates in Baghdad, Army officials said yesterday.
The four enlisted men, who all belong to the 4th Battalion of the 64th
Armored Division, face court-martials, said Maj. Kent Rideout.
The mountain of loot uncovered by U.S. forces on Friday apparently was
left behind by top Ba'ath Party members and senior Republican Guard
commanders who fled Baghdad.
It has been taken to the U.S.-controlled Baghdad Airport for safekeeping
and will be returned to the Iraqi people, officials have said.
"You can understand how the greed took over, when just one wad of this
cash can pay off your mortgage, send your kids to school, etcetera," one
senior officer told The Post.
Three of the arrested GIs, members of an engineering unit attached to the
4th Battalion, are accused of skimming $600,000 of the war booty. They
stashed it in a tree near a cottage where they and other members of their
unit discovered 37 steel boxes, each containing $4 million in $100 bills.
"They must have made a split-second decision," said a senior officer.
The fourth busted GI, who had been assigned to drive some of the
confiscated cash-filled strongboxes to brigade headquarters, is accused of
swiping $300,000 and hiding it in a bag, a cooler and a glove box in his
Hemmt cargo truck.
The glove box was the first place MPs would look for wayward loot, an
officer noted.
Sources said suspicions were aroused when officials found one of the
strongboxes had been opened - even though it hadn't been necessary to check
its contents because all the boxes were identical in size and weight to
those found earlier.
The names of the four GIs were not disclosed last night. Further arrests
are not expected, according to Rideout.
An officer said the brigade feared the thefts would overshadow their
discovery of the huge hoard of money.
The stashed cash was discovered Friday by two sergeants looking for a
chainsaw to cut branches near their new headquarters in the city's palace
district noticed a small cottage with cinderblock walls barricading its
doors and windows.
When the GIs broke through the walls, they found dozens of steel boxes -
with stacks of $100 bills neatly bundled in $100,000 increments.
Other cottages were checked - and other stashes were found. The total
amount of cash was estimated at $700 million.