# Is Saddam Hussein's treasure locked in Moscow airport? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171 "2013-10-02T08:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171/1 "2013-10-02T08:48:07Z")
> **[Is Saddam Hussein's fortune in a warehouse in Moscow? £16bn at airport](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2437208/Is-Saddam-Husseins-fortune-warehouse-Moscow-Mystery-16-75bn-piles-cash-left-airport-years.html)** > > The haul was sent to Moscow from Frankfurt in 2007, four years after the dictator was ousted from power, and eight months after he died. I know, it’s the Daily Mail. They claim “intelligence sources” think this mysterious huge fortune in cash is Saddam’s, or was, but I don’t see any reasoning or evidence for it. Also, is it common for sums of cash in the tens of billions to be shipped around the world with no stated recipient? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171/2 "2013-10-02T09:31:56Z")
I won’t read a Mail article, but from your title, I would point out it would scarcely be in tradition for the Russian authorities not to transfer large sums either abandoned or with the legal owner dead or in the Gulag into safe-keeping for it’s own good. C.F. Spanish Gold. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171/3 "2013-10-02T09:38:23Z")
Misdirected funds from the Iraq Occupation? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171/4 "2013-10-02T10:16:50Z")
I am pretty certain that other than a couple of suitcases of currency here and there, most huge monetary transactions are done electronically. I could see the value of keeping a suitcase, briefcase or backpack of cash in the closet for that on the run part, cash in hand as bribery can work wonders [or at least it does in fiction, I have never been bribed in real life] but money in bulk is voluminous and heavy. Have you not seen the [pictures](http://9thcivic.com/gallery/albums/post/one_million_dollars_cash.jpg) of how much money fits on a pallet? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-saddam-husseins-treasure-locked-in-moscow-airport/670171/5 "2013-10-02T10:26:40Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Have you not seen the [pictures](http://9thcivic.com/gallery/albums/post/one_million_dollars_cash.jpg) of how much money fits on a pallet? [Yes.](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1)