Iraq Official: $8 billion wasted or stolen in last 3 years

An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad, part of $12 billion in cash 'distributed' by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the year following the invastion. Much of the money has never been accounted for.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq 's top corruption fighter said Wednesday that US$8 billion in government money had been wasted or stolen over the past three years and claimed he had been threatened with death after opening an investigation into scores of oil ministry employees.

In the chaos and lawlessness of Iraq, such threats are not taken lightly. Radi al-Radhi, who runs the Public Integrity Commission, leads one of the more dangerous missions in the country today. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that 20 members of the organization have been murdered since it began its work.

In perhaps the most publicized recent case, an estimated US$2 billion (1.5 billion) went missing from funds to rebuild the country's creaking electricity infrastructure.

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