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Investigator: U.N. scandal exposes corruption
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-28 20:02
But Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of
humanitarian goods, corrupted the program by awarding contracts to — and getting
kickbacks from — favored buyers.
The report named some high-profile individuals and companies including a
former French interior minister, Charles Pasqua; Rev. Jean-Marie Benjamin, a
priest who once worked as an assistant to the Vatican secretary of state and
opposed Iraqi sanctions; carmakers DaimlerChrysler AG, Volvo and South Korea's
Daewoo International; and industrial giants Siemens AG.
Pasqua, a conservative who headed the interior ministry in the late 1980s and
early 1990s, said he was unwittingly implicated.
Jean-Bernard Merimee, France's former U.N. ambassador, received $165,725 in
commissions from oil allocations awarded to him by the Iraqi regime. He is now
under investigation in France and has denied any wrongdoing.
Other "political beneficiaries" included British lawmaker George Galloway;
Roberto Formigoni, the president of the Lombardi region in Italy; Vladimir
Zhirinovsky, who heads Russia's Liberal Democratic Party; and Alexander
Voloshin, who at the time was chief of staff in the administration of Russia's
president. They have all denied wrongdoing.
It also alleged oil companies including Texas-based Bayoil and Coastal Corp.,
Russian oil giant Gazprom, and Lukoil Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of Russia's
Lukoil were caught up in the scandal.
The investigators found that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid
illegal kickbacks using a variety of methods, and those paying illegal oil
surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries.
Most of the contracts went to Russian and French
companies and individuals, who were rewarded for their governments' outspoken
opposition to the sanctions. Still, even firms in countries supportive of the
sanctions, such as the United States, found ways to manipulate the system
illegally — sometimes by using Russian firms as middlemen.
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