{"id":547131,"date":"2026-03-17T23:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T23:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T23:05:12","slug":"today-in-history-march-18-with-a-note-from-his-father-he-conducted-the-biggest-bank-heist-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547131\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – March 18: With a note from his father, he conducted the biggest bank heist of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The handwritten letter from the dictator authorised Qusay to take as much money as he wanted from the bank.<\/p>\n

\"QusayQusay Hussein was being groomed to succeed his father. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Three tractor-trailers were brought in to take $900 million in American cash – all $100 notes, as well as tens of millions worth in euros.<\/p>\n

In two hours the bank was completely stripped of its money, with the help of staff too terrified to resist.<\/p>\n

It was estimated the cash taken by Qusay was about a quarter of Iraq’s cash reserves.<\/p>\n

\"SaddamSaddam Hussein governed Iraq with an iron fist. (Adobe Stock)<\/p>\n

But Qusay and his brother Uday would be killed after a firefight with US paratroopers in July that year.<\/p>\n

While Qusay was behind an immense bank robbery, he was considered the reliable son of the dictator.<\/p>\n

Qusay was viewed as the heir apparent and was being groomed as his replacement by his father.<\/p>\n

He was viewed as quiet and calculating, in contrast to Uday who was seen as erratic and sadistic.<\/p>\n

Much of the cash has since been recovered but an estimated US$132 million was not found.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Saddam Hussein with his family, including Qusay (top right). (Nine Archives)<\/p>\n

It is feared much of it went towards financing terrorism.<\/p>\n

The biggest cash theft of all time\ufeff also took place in Iraq, but the details remain scant.<\/p>\n

What is known is that $6 billion sent from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to Iraq later vanished without a trace.<\/p>\n

The money was seized wealth being returned to Iraq following the ousting of Hussein.<\/p>\n

But after the cash was flown into the country, it quickly became unaccounted for.\ufeff<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The handwritten letter from the dictator authorised Qusay to take as much money as he wanted from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-547131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}