US auditors are now confirming that the $6.6 billion in cash the US lost in the wake of the invasion of Iraq may have been stolen. The US sent an initial full planeload (C-130 Hercules) of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12 billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time. A C-130 Hercules can carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills.

The Los Angeles Times had reported that nearly $6.6 billion in cash had remained unaccounted for. Now, the federal auditors are stating that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an office created by Congress, said the missing $6.6 billion may be “the largest theft of funds in national history.”