Afghanistan VP Caught With $52 Million In CASH? (and we let him keep it?!?)

[kpete]

WIKILEAKS:

¶ Suspicions of corruption in the Afghan government: When Afghanistan’s vice president visited the United Arab Emirates last year, local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Administration discovered that he was carrying $52 million in cash. With wry understatement, a cable from the American Embassy in Kabul called the money “a significant amount” that the official, Ahmed Zia Massoud, “was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination.” (Mr. Massoud denies taking any money out of Afghanistan.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/29cables.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

So just what would it take to carry $52 million in cash?

Making the sensible assumption that it was all $100 bills, I note that a $5000 packet of $100 bills is approximately 6" x 2.5" x 0.5" or 7.5 cubic inches.

Doing the appropriate math we find that $52 million consists of 10400 $5000 packets, using up a volume of 78,000 cubic inches.

Converting (at 1728 cubic inches per cubic foot), we arrive at approximately 45 cubic feet or about 1 and 2/3rd cubic yards.

Looked at slightly differently, one would need a suitcase measuring about 1.2 yards in each dimension to carry $52,000,000 in $100 bills. A footlocker type of trunk might measure 1 yd x 0.5 yd x 0.5 yd, so you would need about seven such trunks. You'd probably have to pay an extra luggage fee.

MORE: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/28/923762/-Wikileaks-Document-Dump-Open-Thread-Update:-Release-has-begun!

[itsrobert]

1. Maybe he used a space saver bag

;)

[3waygeek]

2. Of course we let him keep it....

We're probably the ones who gave it to him in the first place.

[Karmadillo]

8. +1

nt

[notesdev]

3. Meanwhile

if they catch a US citizen on a US highway with a few hundred cash, the cop is as likely as not to seize it.

[SugarShack]

4. Where do you see hillary fitting into all of this? after all she's sec of state

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Maybe he was just hoping to pick up one of these to take back home.

Mercedes built in white gold

[obxhead]

6. He wouldn't use 7 trunks though.

It would be moved by pallet, loaded onto a C-130 by forklift, and protected by US armed forces.

In fact I'm willing to bet that's how the money got to him in the first place.

[Motown_Johnny]

7. would paying the extra luggage fee be an issue at that point?

I would seriously consider chartering a plane instead of leaving those trunks with baggage handlers

[rgammon51]

9. Weight

Each US bill of currency, regardless  of  denomination, weighs
about  1 gram

$1M in $100bills is 10,000  bills  or  approx 10kg, or roughly
  22 pounds.

Then $52M in $100 bills weighs about 1144 pounds.

This is BIG and HEAVY cargo  to be moving around  the  world

[onethatcares]

10. ah, hell, it's probly part of the 365 million that disappeared from Iraq

in the early days of the invasion. Of course some lonely spec4 got caught with 7500.00 of that in Manila playing cards so they said they found the culprit and closed the investigation.

[mrarundale]

11. If the story is true, maybe it was drug money

being laundered in the UAE. The DEA always seems to be in Afghanistan, but the drug production only seems to multiply.