FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow today wrote to Finance Ministers in 38 countries formally requesting their support in identifying, securing, and returning Iraqi assets to the Iraqi people. 

Secretary Snow reiterated the obligations of all UN member states under UN Security Counsel Resolution 1483 to transfer any frozen assets of the Iraqi regime to the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) and to freeze and transfer to the DFI any assets belonging to Iraqi state entities, corporations, or former senior regime officials.

Finally, Snow informed the Ministers that the United States has agreed to help the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and the Central Bank of Iraq seek out the assets of certain individuals and entities, including front companies, that may have acted on behalf of the former Iraqi regime.  He added that Treasury General Counsel David D. Aufhauser would be in contact to provide additional information about this effort.

Today’s formal communications with Finance Ministers follows the designation and submission to the UN of 55 former senior Iraqi officials on Tuesday.  Once final, the UN designation requires that all member states freeze and transfer to the DFI the assets of these individuals.

Since March 20, 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department has been engaged in an effort to locate, secure and return assets of the former Iraqi regime for the good of the Iraqi people.  The United States has already returned over $681 million dollars of the $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets previously frozen in the U.S. to Iraq where it is being used to pay civil servants and pensioners, to provide working capital for government ministries, and to purchase equipment for local police forces.  Additionally, the Treasury Department, working with allies, has located over $1.2 billion dollars in previously unknown Iraqi assets and is working to facilitate the return of those assets to the Iraqi people through the Development Fund for Iraq.