THE hunt for Saddam's missing billions was stepped up yesterday amid speculation he amassed a $57 billion fortune during his 30-year reign. Much is said to be invested through dummy corporations in Switzerland, Japan and Germany and some is hidden as cash and diamonds in numbered bank accounts in Europe and the Middle East. But Iraqi and US investigators, led by the FBI, US Treasury agents and State Department accountants, have been unable to identify the fake companies or the numbered accounts.After a brief period of co-operation when he was first captured, the dictator refused to help further. In a report submitted to the CIA in 2005, former UN arms inspector Charles Duelfer estimated that Saddam had amassed more than $15 billion "through illicit means" between 1990, when UN sanctions were imposed, and 2003.
But Iyad Allawi, who was interim prime minister of Iraq in the aftermath of the allied invasion, said the figure was far higher. He said information suggested Saddam had salted away an astonishing $57 billion through a network of bank accounts around the world.
$5.5 billion came from an illegal oil-for-trade deal he signed with Syria between 2000 and 2003.
Investigators also want to interview two of Saddam's three daughters, Raghad, 39, and Rana, 37, who both live in Jordan. Raghad, known as "Little Saddam" because she shares her father's temper, has been accused by the new Iraqi Government of using some of the cash to help finance the terrorist insurgency.
Investigators also want to interview at least two of Saddam's three wives. One is Samira Shahbandar, who was rumoured to be his favourite wife. The other is Nidal al-Hamdani, the general manager of the Solar Energy Research Centre in the Council of Scientific Research, whose husband was also persuaded that divorce was better than death.