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Guards made off with 282 million Iraqi dinars after robbing the private bank they were protecting in central Baghdad.
Earlier reports put the stolen cash at $282 million in US cash dollars, but according to a New York Times report, officials have revised their estimate. The stolen 282 million was denominated in dinars, not dollars, the Interior Ministers now say.
Aswat al-Iraq initially reported in Arabic reported that, an Interior Ministry source said that, “Three guards working for the Dar al-Salam Bank located on Sa'adoun Street in central Baghdad were able to attack the bank . . . stealing a sum of up to $282 million dollars, and fled in an unknown direction after implementing the operation . . . The bank robbery is considered one of the most massive thefts to ever happen in Iraq,” the source continued.
The bank did not offer any additional details on the matter, saying on that the Iraqi security forces “opened an investigation into the event to learn details and the identities of the perpetrators,” Aswat al-Iraq reported in Arabic.
The New York Times also reported the Iraqi officials' estimate of $282 million cash stolen from the Dar al-Salam bank, a private institution in Baghdad's Karrada district.
However, the Times now cites official confusion over the denomination of the cash stolen, revising the estimate downward to a total of approximately $591,000 US dollars:
Officials at the Interior Ministry and at a Baghdad bank drastically revised their account of a large robbery at the Dar Es Salaam bank on Wednesday, saying that there had been confusion about how much of the stolen money was Iraqi dinars and how much was United States dollars. The robbers made off with 282 million Iraqi dinars, equal to about $225,000, and $366,000 American dollars; on Wednesday the police reported that $282 million had been stolen.
The haul represents a respectable sum, especially in Iraqi terms, but not one for the record books, as Iraqi officials had initially announced.
Official investigations continue into the circumstances of the heist.
