Excluding the $1 billion (then £572 million) which former President, Saddam Hussein 'authorised' his son to take from the Central Bank of Iraq in March 2003, the largest amount of money stolen from a bank by robbers is estimated at 164,755,150 Brazilian reais ($69.8 million, £38.6 million). A gang of 6-10 robbers previously 'operating' as a landscape company in a nearby building, dug a tunnel measuring 78 m (256 ft) long, at 4 m (13 ft) below street-level, which ended directly below the Banco Central in Fortaleza, Brazil. On the weekend of 6-7 August 2005, the robbers broke through 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) of steel-reinforced concrete to enter the bank vault and seize five containers of 50-real ($24, £13) notes, weighing 3.5 tonnes (7,716 lb). Whilst some culprits and a fraction of the money have been recovered, the Brazilian authorities are still investigating.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Central_burglary_at_Fortaleza http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4133388.stm
