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Iraqi Bankers Say $400m Isis Heist Never Happened !


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CNN. Broadcasting While Frisking Maliki !

 

 

 

July 17, 2014 1:31 pm
Iraqi bankers say $400m Isis heist never happened
By Borzou Daragahi in Cairo

It was described as one the biggest alleged heists in the history of bank robbery: over $400m reportedly stolen from Mosul financial institutions by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, known as Isis, as it seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul last month.

But Iraqi bankers in Mosul and the capital, Baghdad, are saying the robbery never took place and that the cash remains inside the vaults of the city’s banks.

“We have been following up on this question of the stolen money since the beginning of the crisis,” Abdul-Aziz Hassoun, executive director of the Iraqi Private Banks League, told the Financial Times during a recent meeting in Baghdad.

“We speak to the banks there all the time. We have been informed that all are guarded from the outside by their own guards and that nothing has been removed from the premises of any banks, not even a piece of paper.”

Reports that Isis had stolen the 500bn ($430m) Iraqi dinars from Mosul financial institutions as the Islamist group and its Sunni insurgent allies seized control of the city more than a month ago raised alarm bells in the west and throughout the region, amid concern over the ambitions and growing capacity of extremist Islamists.

Iraqi officials, including one-time CIA asset and lawmaker Ahmed Chalabi, described the alleged bank heist in comments cited by Iraqi and international media.

But Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province, which includes Mosul, rejects the stories of vast sums of money being taken away by militants.
“Nobody until now has confirmed that story,” he said in a telephone interview from Erbil.

Not a single witness account has emerged of the Isis members making off with any money and executives and employees from among the 20 private banks and 15 or so government bank branches in Mosul say there is no evidence that militants stole any money from the banks, many of which continue to operate.

Isis itself has never claimed to have stolen cash, though it has boasted repeatedly of the millions of dollars in US military equipment it looted from Iraqi armed forces who fled the city.

“Our branch in Mosul is working normally,” said Alaa Karam Allah, CEO of Iraq’s United Bank for Investment, which has 21 branches across the country. “It did not close and work has not stopped for a day. None of our workers have been assaulted, and the building is untouched.”

Mr Hassoun, with decades of experience in Iraqi banking, said it was doubtful so much money was stored in the city anyway. “Iraq’s market is only consumer goods, not much of capital goods,” he said.

Only the Central Bank branch in Mosul keeps large quantities of money in its vaults, he said, but the “Central Bank of Iraq has given no hint of such an action”.

Reached by telephone in Iraq, Zuhair Ali Akbar, deputy governor of Iraq’s Central Bank, twice refused to confirm or deny whether the money had been stolen. The bank itself has issued no public statements about any theft of such a large sum.

But other banking officials in touch with the Central Bank said the money in Mosul remains untouched. “As for the Central Bank in Mosul, it was never robbed,” said Talal Ibrahim, executive director of the private Union Bank of Iraq, citing a contact who works at the Mosul branch of the Central Bank. “Not a single cent had been stolen from the bank. Isis never put a hand on the money.”

Mr Ibrahim said the Mosul branch of his office had remained open throughout the crisis. “Operations are going on with utmost normality; deposit and withdrawal actions have never stopped,” he said. “Currency exchange operations are done according to international rates and sometimes even cheaper.”

Several Mosul residents and bank officials said government operated banks, such as Rafidain and Rasheed, which normally distribute the salaries of public-sector employees in Mosul, have been closed. Workers are directed to branches outside the city to collect their earnings.

An employee of the Mosul Bank for Development and Investment said offices there had been closed for weeks. “There are no workers here,” he said in a telephone interview from Mosul. “The bank has been closed for weeks now. But there was no storming and no looting.”

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0378d4f4-0c28-11e4-9080-00144feabdc0.html#axzz37XZnLPeV

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Most banks banks worldwide only carry about $40k-$50k for daily transactions on average. Some very few do carry more for business banking customers. Central banks worldwide charge hefty fees for the corporates to hold high amounts.

I'd be very surprised if the Iraqi banks operated differently.

Also, it would mean that ISIS would have had to have heisted at least 80 banks to haul the kind of moolah that the media reported.

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This is what you call  "IRAQI DRAMA "  bs after bs after bs..........and so on......... :rake:


Most banks banks worldwide only carry about $40k-$50k for daily transactions on average. Some very few do carry more for business banking customers. Central banks worldwide charge hefty fees for the corporates to hold high amounts.

I'd be very surprised if the Iraqi banks operated differently.

Also, it would mean that ISIS would have had to have heisted at least 80 banks to haul the kind of moolah that the media reported.

This is very true........ :twothumbs:

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I knew it to be a false report and I even commented on it when it was reported. I still doubt that any gold bullion would be in any of these northern banks. The Sunnis rebels would be stupid to robb the peoples money from the banks in Mosel or anywhere else. All Hell would break loose against them if they robbed the banks and they know it!

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I never could find the link...but I remember when Iraq bought all that gold in the begining of the year...there was a comment somewhere in the report that it was housed at "locations outside Iraq..only those in the CBI knew the location:" so I agree I never thought they would be able to get their hands on it. ...and as far as the cash...there is just not that much in the banks

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After this is all said and done I wonder if anyone is going to make a movie about all of this.  I thought it was crazy to hear that the terrorists have stolen all that money from the banks.  Now the money heist was a huge story just to throw us off. 

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Now what

Look at all those people who sold out because of propaganda

I don't think it was to throw us off

But maybe some would be robbers

Why would they rob the central bank branch if it has already been robbed ?

But in reality never was

Good pretend job

Those propagandists are trained very well

They can sway public opinion pretty good

They can tell you the constitution says something when it doesn't

You can read it yourselves and see

But if they keep bombarding the media with bs and they say it enough

Some people start to believe it and then they too start passing the propaganda around as the truth

Every war

Every political battle is loaded with propaganda to throw off its opposition

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WHAT?

I'm shocked beyond belief. You mean we were lied to?

NNNNNOOOOOOOO WWWWWAAAAAAAYYYYYY.

Yup...it happens buddy!!! Lol!!! I had an early life lesson bout that when my older brother gave me some "pet mice" to raise...wish I would have connected the dots...I was raising the mice...but not for my benefit but for a future snack for my brothers pet 6 ft. Boa Constrictor!!! Whodathunk???? I guess the lesson for me was never look a gift mouse in the mouth...cause it might be on the menu!!! ;o)

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Yup...it happens buddy!!! Lol!!! I had an early life lesson bout that when my older brother gave me some "pet mice" to raise...wish I would have connected the dots...I was raising the mice...but not for my benefit but for a future snack for my brothers pet 6 ft. Boa Constrictor!!! Whodathunk???? I guess the lesson for me was never look a gift mouse in the mouth...cause it might be on the menu!!! ;o)

OH SNAP.

LOL

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