HINESVILLE, Ga. — He took the money. Sgt. Matt Novak admits that much. He and several fellow soldiers could not resist after discovering nearly $200 million in $100 bills sealed inside a gardener's cottage in a Baghdad palace complex last spring.
"Millions of dollars makes a lot of things go through your mind," Novak told a military review board in Georgia in December after confessing that he and the others had stolen about $12 million.
A year after American soldiers discovered about $760 million of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's cash hidden in several cottages, the case still raises questions. U.S. Treasury Department officials are trying to determine whether Hussein got the money from illegal oil sales and kickbacks, even as the cash is being spent on the U.S. occupation and rebuilding effort.
For Novak, one of six soldiers accused of stealing seven-inch-thick bundles of $100 bills, the affair has been a bitter lesson in military justice. He confessed, named higher-ups and led investigators to millions he and others had tried to hide. He has since been kicked out of the Army and banned from nearby Ft. Stewart, while the five others implicated received administrative punishments -- and two were promoted, Novak's lawyer said.
"I really thought everything would work out if I just did the right thing and told the truth," Novak said in the living room of his brick home. "I'm not asking anybody to feel sorry for me -- I did something wrong. But I tried to make it right, and the Army got me good."
Novak, a trim, energetic man of 34, spends his days holed up in his house, the blinds drawn and the door locked. He chain-smokes, gulps coffee and cares for his young son and daughter while his wife works and attends night classes. He fears he is sinking into depression, in part because he is barred from civilian jobs at Ft. Stewart, where he feels his 12 years as a medic and supply sergeant could be put to good use.
There is one more thing troubling Novak: He says other soldiers have told him that several soldiers got away with stealing millions. According to these soldiers, Novak said, the money was buried at Baghdad University and in the desert outside the city. He said the soldiers noted the global positioning system coordinates and planned to return to recover the money.
Other soldiers scooped up cash hurriedly discarded by Novak and his confederates, he said, later spending $100 bills in stores in Hinesville. Novak said soldiers took photos of one another waving wads of cash.
