The day after the US launched its invasion on Iraq, Washington ordered a search for the assets belonging to Saddam Hussein.

Reports are now emerging that some of the fallen Iraqi dictator's assets may be in the form of letters of credit (L/Cs).

Whose money?

Iraqi assets worth hundreds of millions of US dollars have been found in European and Middle Eastern banks in the global search for Saddam's money but are these assets his? Saddam's name will not be etched on his wealth, wherever or however it appears.

This has left officials pondering whether assets found in the UK, Lebanon and Switzerland belong to Saddam. Each country is thought to have unearthed about half a billion dollars in Iraqi assets, but it is not clear to whom the money belongs beyond official Iraqi government accounts.

Funds flows

"There's no way Saddam Hussein would have opened an account in his own name," said James Nason of the Swiss Bankers Association, whose members are required to report any suspicious accounts to the government of Switzerland.

Officials in Washington recognise that finding the hidden assets will be very difficult.

"The greatest challenge lies in identifying and tracing the flow of funds that Hussein has stolen and injected into the international financial system," said David D Aufhauser, general counsel of the US Treasury Department.

L/C assets?

Estimates of Saddam's wealth range from US$2 billion to US$40 billion. Some of this money may have been spirited out of Iraq through a network of people entrusted with the money until it was needed. Some cash has reportedly found its way across Iraq's borders stashed in trucks.

Jordan has about US$1 billion in Iraqi money, the bulk of it in L/Cs held by Saddam's government according to an unnamed official quoted recently by the Associated Press news agency. Officials however denied that Jordanian banks were holding any assets of Saddam or his family.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.