World

$125bn Iraq fraud dwarfs Madoff

by Ahmar Mustikhan | February 16, 2009 at 03:25 am

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Investigations begin in US military officers involvement in what could easily be billed as the scam of the century in Iraq's so-called rebuilding after the US invasion and the Muslim nation's carpet bombing under President Bush.

In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to reconstruct Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme.

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Ahmar Mustikhan

at 03:31 on February 16th, 2009

This is unbelievable. Did they learn this from Pak generals?

poor oligarch (not verified)

at 07:36 on February 16th, 2009

"American federal investigators are now starting an inquiry into the actions of senior US officers involved in the programme to rebuild Iraq, according to The New York Times"

The Independant's article seems in part to be based on this, two days previous in NYT