An Amarillo federal court jury today heard opening arguments in the fraud trial of an Amarillo man who claims to hold $33 trillion in assets that belonged to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The jury, selected today, has four men and eight women. Tommy Lee Buckley pleaded innocent today before U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson.

In March, an Amarillo federal grand jury indicted Buckley on multiple mail fraud counts alleging he bilked investors out of $2.8 million by falsely claiming in a newsletter that he would share Hussein's assets with them. Buckley called his plan to redeem the purported assets 'TreasuryGate.'

On July 8, 1991, Buckley tried to obtain a receipt from the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank for a certificate payable to Hussein in the amount of $33 trillion, federal court records show. The tellers took the check to the bank's lawyer, who made a copy and notified the U.S. Secret Service, said Vicki Lamberson, the government's attorney.

The Secret Service later searched the Dallas hotel Buckley and his associates were staying in, where they found 14 other forged certificates, Lamberson said.

Buckley was arrested and held for about a week. The Dallas case was dismissed about 30 days later, said Assistant Federal Public Defender Bonnie Gunden, who is representing Buckley.

Indictments issued by an Amarillo federal grand jury allege Buckley represented to about 1,800 investors that the certificates were worth "trillions" of dollars and that he had rights to redeem the financial instruments, which federal authorities said are forgeries.

Between 2004 and 2008, Buckley deposited $2.8 million in his business account at Amarillo's First Bank Southwest - deposits that consisted of monthly checks and money orders submitted by investors, most of whom subscribed to a periodical newsletter penned by Buckley, federal court records show.