Illicit Funds Keeping Hussein in the Black

According to the U.S. State Department, the personal fortune of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein amounts to 7 billion dollars (approximately 8.4 trillion won).

Hussein is on par with the 38th richest man in the world, George Soros, as estimated by Forbes magazine in 2003. A recent issue of Time magazine (dated February 10th) dissected the business secrets of `Hussein Incorporated,` which could have collected huge sums of money even under UN economic sanctions for the past 10 years. The magazine reported that the fortune of President Hussein had originated from smuggling, bribes, and deception, and if his illegal funds could be secured, it could offset the cost for rebuilding Iraq.

The `Oil for Food Exchange Program,` which allows for the export of oil to secure food under UN control, is the biggest source of income for President Hussein. He abuses the system, in which the government can select oil buyers, and receives big pay-offs from the buyers. His government then submits documents with faulty figures to the UN. Money gained from 2000-2001 amounted to as much as 175 million dollars (approximately 210 billion won).

Paradoxically, America, which is planning war against Iraq, buys around 75% of the oil that slips out through black market deals like this. Therefore, the magazine pointed out that American drivers are essentially depositing money into Hussein`s coffers.

One million barrels of oil a day, smuggled into the Gulf region, are also a large source of funds for the president. Hussein has collected 6.6 billion dollars (approximately 7.92 trillion won) from 1997 to 2001 through oil rebates and smuggling. Oil is being smuggled to Jordan at a rate of 110,000 barrels a day, 230,000 barrels a day to Syria and Lebanon, and oil is also secretly flowing into Turkey through a pipeline in the northern part of Iraq in the hundreds of thousands of barrels every day. Annual turnover from that is at least one billion dollars (approximately 1.2 trillion won).

Hussein`s sons, Uday and Qusay, are raking in money through the smuggling of gasoline, various luxury goods, and cigarettes. The price of gasoline, which is about 50 cents per 20L in Iraq, is 10 dollars in neighboring countries, so the pay-off is over 20 times market prices. Income from smuggled cigarettes is also up into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Recently, the cigarette company R. J. Reynolds was sued by the European Union for the smuggling of cigarettes without tax.

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