In this Guardian story:

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent.
[...]
In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.

That would be the best birthday present ever, a couple of pounds of shrink-wrapped $100 bills. “I didn't know what to get you, I don't know what you're reading these days and I haven't been keeping up with all the new movies.” “Oh, c'mon, this is great. I can always use some shrink-wrapped hundreds—you know me.”

I know from personal experience with suitcases of mob money that I keep finding in my taxi or in the trash that one million in hundreds makes a stack about one metre in height. In fact, that's how the French first determined the length of the metre, a little-known fact. A pallet is usually about four feet each way, so you could get 100 million in there easily enough.

Labels: Missing Billions