Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Iraqi Job

Guards at a Baghdad bank are suspected of staging an inside-job robbery, nabbing nearly $300 million.

Guards staged one of the largest bank robberies in Iraqi history, making off with a stunning $282 million dollars in cash from a private bank in central Baghdad, Aswat al-Iraq reports in Arabic.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Interior Ministry source told Aswat al-Iraq that, “Three guards working for the Dar al-Salam Bank located on Sa'adoun Street in central Baghdad were able to attack the bank . . . stealing a sum of up to $282 million dollars, and fled in an unknown direction after implementing the operation.”

“The bank robbery is considered one of the most massive thefts to ever happen in Iraq,” the source continued.
One of the most massive thefts ever in Iraq?

Has there ever been a bank robbery anywhere in which that kind of cash was stolen? Usually, you have to be the stock-value-inflating, insider-trading CEO of a large public company (or the retired CEO of an oil conglomerate) to make off with that kind of cash.

I'm no crime buff however, so if anybody knows of any bank robbers who ever made off with hundreds of millions of dollars, let me know.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just googled "Iraq bank heist" and found only two references. One was MSNBC, the other was yours.
I've looked at the CNN, ABC, FOX, CBS, REUTERS and NBC sites for the story and couldn't find it. Maybe these news folks will catch up or maybe the story has been intentionally shelved.
I agree that nearly $300 million is a huge amount of money. If it's U.S. dollars as indicated, there's a big story here that begs for a folo from a legit news organization - if any remain.
This could (and should) get interesting if the story is not a hoax.

Dennis S.