BY DAVID ZUCCHINO
Los Angeles Times Service
BAGHDAD -Army commanders said Wednesday that American military personnel took $13.1 million from huge caches of U.S. currency that were found by fellow soldiers in recent days in an exclusive neighborhood once home to senior Iraqi officials.
Investigators have recovered all of the allegedly stolen money, officials said, and commanders have ordered soldiers not to search for more hidden cash in the area where they discovered $656 million in boxes inside cottages on Friday.
Civil affairs officers Tuesday found an additional $112 million inside kennels in the same area. Of the money found in the cottages, one commander said, three galvanized aluminum boxes containing $12 million were allegedly removed and hidden by six soldiers for several hours before being recovered by investigators Saturday morning.
Those three boxes of cash previously had not been recorded by officers. With that amount, a total of about $780 million has been found in sealed structures in a tree-lined Tigris River area at the edge of the sprawling Presidential Palace complex in central Baghdad.
The currency apparently was left behind by Baath Party and Republican Guard officials as they fled the U.S. invasion last month.
Two of the three allegedly stolen boxes, each containing $4 million in tightly wrapped bundles of $100,000, were recovered in a stone-lined canal near a two-story mansion, commanders said. The third was retrieved near the operating base of soldiers implicated in the thefts.
A soldier with knowledge of the missing money had pangs of guilt and told investigators where to find the cash, said Lt. Col. Philip deCamp, who is participating in the investigation. That soldier has been cleared, he said, but five others are still under investigation.
Those five soldiers, who have not been charged, have cooperated with investigators to varying degrees, according to deCamp. They face charges ranging from a letter of reprimand to a full court martial, which could include prison time.
The soldiers under investigation are from Bravo Company of the 10th Engineer Battalion, which is attached to or under what the military calls ''operational control'' of Task Force 4-64 of the Second Brigade.
In addition to the $12 million that was recovered, investigators retrieved $1.2 million that was missing from the money found in one of the cottages.
Officials said investigators Friday recovered $600,000 hidden in a nearby tree and $300,000 in a cooler on a truck carrying the cash to Baghdad's international airport for counting and safekeeping. On Saturday morning, another $200,000 was found in a wooded area near the cottage.
No money has been reported missing from the cache found Tuesday inside seven kennels. All the boxes of cash had been sealed with metal rivets and tied with green plastic tags marked ``Bank of Jordan.''
Officials have said that $1 billion in U.S. currency was withdrawn from Jordan's Central Bank prior to the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
''The treasure hunt is over,'' deCamp said. ``My goal is to close this out, return the money to the proper authorities and discipline the soldiers.''
A soldier with knowledge of the missing money had pangs of guilt and told investigators where to find the cash
NO GUILT FOR KILLING BUT HE GOT PANGED FOR STEALING 13 MILLION LMAO UNREAL
Los Angeles Times Service
BAGHDAD -Army commanders said Wednesday that American military personnel took $13.1 million from huge caches of U.S. currency that were found by fellow soldiers in recent days in an exclusive neighborhood once home to senior Iraqi officials.
Investigators have recovered all of the allegedly stolen money, officials said, and commanders have ordered soldiers not to search for more hidden cash in the area where they discovered $656 million in boxes inside cottages on Friday.
Civil affairs officers Tuesday found an additional $112 million inside kennels in the same area. Of the money found in the cottages, one commander said, three galvanized aluminum boxes containing $12 million were allegedly removed and hidden by six soldiers for several hours before being recovered by investigators Saturday morning.
Those three boxes of cash previously had not been recorded by officers. With that amount, a total of about $780 million has been found in sealed structures in a tree-lined Tigris River area at the edge of the sprawling Presidential Palace complex in central Baghdad.
The currency apparently was left behind by Baath Party and Republican Guard officials as they fled the U.S. invasion last month.
Two of the three allegedly stolen boxes, each containing $4 million in tightly wrapped bundles of $100,000, were recovered in a stone-lined canal near a two-story mansion, commanders said. The third was retrieved near the operating base of soldiers implicated in the thefts.
A soldier with knowledge of the missing money had pangs of guilt and told investigators where to find the cash, said Lt. Col. Philip deCamp, who is participating in the investigation. That soldier has been cleared, he said, but five others are still under investigation.
Those five soldiers, who have not been charged, have cooperated with investigators to varying degrees, according to deCamp. They face charges ranging from a letter of reprimand to a full court martial, which could include prison time.
The soldiers under investigation are from Bravo Company of the 10th Engineer Battalion, which is attached to or under what the military calls ''operational control'' of Task Force 4-64 of the Second Brigade.
In addition to the $12 million that was recovered, investigators retrieved $1.2 million that was missing from the money found in one of the cottages.
Officials said investigators Friday recovered $600,000 hidden in a nearby tree and $300,000 in a cooler on a truck carrying the cash to Baghdad's international airport for counting and safekeeping. On Saturday morning, another $200,000 was found in a wooded area near the cottage.
No money has been reported missing from the cache found Tuesday inside seven kennels. All the boxes of cash had been sealed with metal rivets and tied with green plastic tags marked ``Bank of Jordan.''
Officials have said that $1 billion in U.S. currency was withdrawn from Jordan's Central Bank prior to the U.S. military invasion of Iraq.
''The treasure hunt is over,'' deCamp said. ``My goal is to close this out, return the money to the proper authorities and discipline the soldiers.''
A soldier with knowledge of the missing money had pangs of guilt and told investigators where to find the cash
NO GUILT FOR KILLING BUT HE GOT PANGED FOR STEALING 13 MILLION LMAO UNREAL
