UN names oil companies in Iraq kickback scheme

Several oil trading companies paid at least tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq during ...

Several oil trading companies paid at least tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq during the UN oil-for-food program, a UN report said on Thursday.

Firms including Vitol, Glencore and Bayoil paid out illegal surcharges for crude oil deals with the country, under international sanctions after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

In total, Saddam Hussein’s government took in nearly $2 billion in surcharges from more than 2,000 foreign companies, the report said. Other companies, Dutch-based Trafigura and French oil services firm Ibex Energy, bribed UN-hired inspectors to buy more oil than was authorised under the oil-for-food programme, the report from a UN-established Independent Inquiry Committee said.

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The programme was introduced in 1996 as a way to ease sanctions against Iraq, levied after the invasion of Kuwait, by allowing Baghdad to sell oil to pay for food and medicine for the Iraqi people.

The report is the final one from the panel, led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, which has investigated the programme for the past 19 months. The report aims to put into context the manipulation of the programme by companies around the world as well as individuals, groups and governments.

Iraq offers army to help Pakistan with quake relief

BAGHDAD: Iraq said on Thursday it plans to send several hundred soldiers from its new army to help relief efforts in Pakistan. “It is an engineering battalion, well-trained and equipped to relieve the Pakistanis,” Lt. General Babkir Zibari told a news conference, adding that the unit would depart as soon as Pakistan accepts the offer of help. Iraq’s post-Saddam Hussein army now counts well over 100,000 troops in around 100 battalions, but it still lacks equipment. REUTERS