N1. Central Bank of Iraq: The “Family” Business (2003) – $920 million
Started the day before US began bombing Iraq, on March 18th. Almost 1 billion dollars was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq during the course of several robberies.
There were no bandit masks, guns, or hostages. The weapon that made this heist possible was a note, signed by Saddam Hussein.
He had his son, Qusay, withdraw the money which included boxes of $100 bills stamped with a seal identifying them as ‘security money’.
It took over 5 hours to load the money onto the trucks. Qusay was later killed by the United States military in the midst of a fight.
What do you think?
