Investigator: U.N. scandal exposes corruption
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-28 20:02

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday voiced skepticism about the report, saying some of the documents relating to the alleged collusion between Saddam's regime and Russian officials were forged.

But many little-known businesses in the developing world made large payments to get contracts.

"Big companies tended to be involved in a small way" while small companies "are heavily involved," Volcker told AP.

The report gave several examples of just how companies and Saddam colluded to manipulate the program.

It alleged German car manufacturer DaimlerChrysler's won oil-for-food contracts worth about $5.2 million to sell Iraq spare parts and vehicles. The contracts were paid out of a U.N. bank account funded by Iraqi oil sales, also administered by the U.N.

One of those contracts was to sell Iraq's oil ministry a Mercedes armored van worth about $70,000. As a sweetener, a DaimlerChrysler agent signed a secret deal to give Iraq a $7,000 kickback — 10 percent of the van's value.

When the final contract for the van was submitted for U.N. approval, the price of the truck was inflated to include that amount. That meant that the U.N. fund ended up paying DaimlerChrysler for the kickback.

DaimlerChrysler said it was aware of the report but declined to comment because of ongoing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.