Volcker panel cites French, Russian firms By Betsy Pisik
The Bear on Oct 31 2005 at 1:08 am | Filed under: Need to Know
NEW YORK — Russian and French firms dominated the list of companies that made nearly $2 billion in illicit payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime in order to win contracts under the Iraq oil-for-food program, according to a massive new report released yesterday in a U.N.-approved inquiry.
More than half the companies that participated in the U.N. oil-for-food program helped Saddam undermine international sanctions by paying kickbacks and fees to the regime, according to investigators, who found that 2,250 firms from 66 nations made illegal payments to Iraq.
http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20051028-011838-6757r
Related
Volcker 5.0 Wall Street Journal
The publication yesterday of Paul Volcker’s fifth and final report on the U.N.’s Oil for Food program tells us little we didn’t know about the broad outlines of the $100 billion scandal. But, oh, are the details ever instructive.
The Volcker report confirms that Saddam Hussein demanded, and got, some $1.8 billion in illegal surcharges, kickbacks and bribes from companies doing business in Iraq. It confirms that he steered billions in oil and humanitarian contracts to his politically preferred clients, particularly Russia and France, and smaller sums to agents of influence (or their associates) such as British MP George Galloway, French Senator Charles Pasqua, and Oil for Food director Benon Sevan. It confirms that Saddam did so under the noses, and frequently with the connivance, of the U.N. agencies entrusted to monitor the program.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113046042345482016.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
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