Oil-for-food: The United Nations Exposed - Page 7 - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 02-03-2006, 12:23 AM

World's biggest miner BHP drawn into Iraq oil-for-food inquiry

SYDNEY (AFP) - The world's largest consolidated miner BHP Billiton has been drawn into an Australian probe into the UN oil-for-food scandal when the inquiry's head asked to be allowed to investigate the company's dealings in Iraq.

A commission of inquiry into the UN oil-for-food programme is investigating the payment of 220 million US dollars in kick-backs to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein by Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB.

Inquiry head, former judge Terence Cole, Friday requested that the government expand the probe so he could investigate the dealings of mining giant BHP Billiton in Iraq.

Cole said it was appropriate that he request permission to investigate "BHP Billiton Limited and its associated companies and Tigris Petroleum Corporation," over a multi-million dollar wheat shipment funded by BHP a decade ago.

"The original transaction preceded the United Nations oil-for-food programme. However, there is material before this inquiry which suggests that the original transaction in 1995-6 might have been in breach of United Nations sanctions," Cole told the inquiry.

BHP Billiton said it would cooperate fully with the inquiry.

Cole did not ask to expand his rights to question the government's involvement, saying he was confident the inquiry's terms of reference allowed him to probe Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

But he warned he may ask the government to widen his scope if he uncovers evidence of illegal acts by the government or its officers.

Prime Minister John Howard Friday rejected allegations that his government, which controlled AWB until mid-1999, knew about any illegal payments in Iraq.

"I did not know, my ministers did not know and on the information that I have been provided and the advice that I have received from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, I do not believe that the department knew that AWB was involved in the payment of bribes," he told commercial television.

"We frankly believed all along that AWB was an organisation of complete integrity."

Howard said he, his ministers and department officials were prepared to appear before the inquiry if asked to do so.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also stressed that his department was not aware of the alleged bribes.

"I am convinced that no-one in my department knew that AWB was paying kickbacks," he told Sky News.

The UN's probe last year accused AWB of paying 220 million dollars in bribes to Iraq to secure 2.3 billion dollars in wheat contracts during the oil-for-food programme.

These were the biggest payments made by any of the more than 2,000 companies worldwide that the UN report implicated in the scandal.

Senior AWB executives have denied knowingly paying bribes, saying they believed the cash was for transport fees, and have told the inquiry that their deals with Iraq were approved by the government.

02/02/2006

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...1.htm&sc=shint

U.S. Official Pleads Guilty in Iraq Scheme
By TONI LOCY

WASHINGTON (AP) - A former U.S. occupation official in Iraq pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to steal more than $2 million and rigging bids on $8.6 million in reconstruction contracts.

Robert J. Stein, 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., admitted that he and his co-conspirators smuggled millions of dollars out of Iraq into the United States aboard commerical airliners and laundered cash through multiple bank accounts in Switzerland, Amsterdam and Romania.

Stein was a Defense Department employee who served as a contract official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, controlling more than $82 million in funds slated for rebuilding the Middle Eastern country.

He told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that he also stole $600,000 in cash and used coalition money to buy dozens of machine guns and other weapons for use by a private security company he and his co-conspirators had formed to operate in Iraq.

The bulk of the bid-rigging benefited businessman Philip H. Bloom, who faces federal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Bloom's name was not mentioned in court Thursday. But prosecutors have identified him and his role in the Stein conspiracy in other court papers.

In exchange for steering contracts to Bloom, Stein and others received plane tickets, jewelry, alcohol and sexual favors from women at Bloom's villa in Baghdad.

Bloom, a U.S. citizen who lived in Romania for many years, and five U.S. Army Reserve officials have been implicated with Stein in the theft and kickback scheme, according to court records.

Stein told the judge that Bloom, whom he referred to as ``co-conspirator number 6,'' made the initial approach about the scheme and that the thefts and bid-rigging ``just came into play.''

When Kollar-Kotelly asked who was in charge, Stein said, ``I'd have to say myself, yes ma'am.''

02/02/06

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...206iraq_scheme

Jolie Rouge · 11-27-2006, 01:45 AM

Charges recommended in oil-for-food scam
8 minutes ago

CANBERRA, Australia - An inquiry into multimillion-dollar kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein paid by Australia's monopoly wheat exporter on Monday recommended criminal charges against 11 company officials but found no illegal activity by the government.

The final report of the royal commission into payments by the Australian Wheat Board, now known as AWB Ltd., under the U.N.'s corruption-riddled Iraq oil-for-food program was made public Monday when it was formally tabled in Parliament.

In his report, former judge Terence Cole said, "I found no material that is any way suggestive of illegal activity by the Commonwealth or any of its officers." The Commonwealth of Australia is a formal title used for the government.

Prime Minister John Howard ordered the inquiry last year after an investigation by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker exposed the AWB as the largest source of suspect payments under the oil-for-food program. From 1999-2003, AWB executives authorized $222 million in bogus transport fees to a Jordanian trucking company part-owned by Saddam's government, Volcker found.

Payments to Saddam were illegal under U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and former Trade Minister Mark Vaile were called to testify before the government inquiry in April.

All denied having any knowledge that AWB was breaking the U.N. sanctions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/...a_oil_for_food

Australia inquiry says AWB misled UN over Iraq

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd may have breached Australia's Crimes Act over the payment of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq, a judicial inquiry found on Monday.

The inquiry by retired judge Terence Cole found charges were possible against 11 managers of AWB, and found the company had misled the United Nation's oil-for-food program over $222 million in payments to Iraq before 2003.

Cole spent 11 months examining whether AWB had broken any Australian laws over the payments, mostly paid as trucking fees through Jordanian company Alia ahead of the 2003 Iraq war.

He found no Australian government minister or official had acted illegally over the payments.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061127/...ralia_awb_dc_1

Jolie Rouge · 02-22-2007, 06:20 PM

5-year sentence in oil-for-food caper
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A South Korean businessman convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison.

Tongsun Park was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin for his conviction seven months ago on conspiracy charges. A jury had rejected his claims that he was a middleman representing the U.N.'s interests in relieving the pain of Iraqis under Saddam Hussein.

The judge called it a "harsh" sentence for a 71-year-old man in poor health but said it was reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.

"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program," the judge said.

Park said he didn't want to speak in court. His lawyer noted his client's age, poor health and desire to get his life back on track.

Federal prosecutors said at Park's trial in July that he was part of a corrupt group of bureaucrats and oil tycoons who enabled a humanitarian effort to be twisted into a corrupt venture for bureaucrats, oil tycoons and Saddam.

Earlier Thursday, the judge rejected requests by Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr.; Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc.'s sole shareholder, David B. Chalmers Jr.; and oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev to dismiss charges that they paid secret and illegal surcharges to Iraq to receive allocations of oil. Among the charges are wire fraud and conspiracy.

The judge noted that Wyatt had claimed he was being prosecuted solely because he criticized U.S. policies and actions toward Iraq but had offered no credible evidence to support the theory.

"Mere speculation that prosecutors were influenced by Wyatt's opposition to U.S. foreign policy is not sufficient to show discriminatory purpose," the judge wrote.

Park was convicted despite the few links between him and Iraq after 1997, even though the conspiracy was alleged to have stretched from 1992 to 2002.

The oil-for-food program from 1996 to 2003 let the Iraqi government sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for Iraqis, suffering because of sanctions imposed on their country after it invaded Kuwait and brought about the first Gulf War. By 2000, authorities said, Saddam had begun insisting that those he dealt with pay kickbacks.

Prosecutors said Park exploited his relationship with former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to join an effort by Samir A. Vincent, an Iraqi-American, to earn the favor of Iraq and share as much as $45 million in windfall gains if the sanctions were lifted.

Authorities say the oil-for-food program was corrupted after Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods.

Vincent, who testified against Park, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and is cooperating with the government. He said Park arranged meetings during 1993 involving Park, Boutros-Ghali and Vincent, including three meetings at Boutros-Ghali's New York residence.

Prosecutors said evidence proved that some money Park received from the government of Iraq was supposed to be used to "take care" of Boutros-Ghali.

An independent panel concluded in 2005 that Iraq had a scheme to bribe Boutros-Ghali but found no evidence the secretary-general was aware of the plot or received the money.

Park also faces trial in Washington on charges that he made false statements about his participation in the oil-for-food program during a December 2004 interview by FBI agents at the Watergate Hotel.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/...7Yaan7Cm.s0NUE

Jolie Rouge · 07-17-2007, 06:37 PM

July 17, 2007
Caught Red-Handed
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/018261.php

We have followed, from time to time, the loathesome career of George Galloway, formerly Saddam Hussein's chief shill in the West, more recently a defender of terrorists, hero to Western leftists, and cat impersonator.

His downward spiral continues: this morning, a Parliamentary committee released a report recommending that Galloway be suspended from Parliament for a month for concealing the fact that his "Mariam appeal," an alleged charity, was funded in part by Saddam Hussein. Galloway, true to form, tried to obscure the issue at hand by claiming that he deserves to be awarded a medal, not suspended from the House of Commons. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2090185.ece

The report is available here. http://www.publications.parliament.u...rv.htm#reports

This represents, I believe, the fourth official inquiry that has found misconduct of some kind on Galloway's part in connection with Saddam's oil-for-food program.

There hasn't really been any doubt for some time about the fact that Galloway took money from Saddam in return for defending the tyrant; money from oil-for-food kickbacks has been traced not just to the Mariam Appeal, but to Galloway's wife's bank accounts. But the most interesting aspect of the Parliamentary committee's report is that it appended a translation of an audio recording of a meeting between Galloway and Saddam Hussein in 2002. At its conclusion, the transcript contains an exchange in which Galloway acknowledges that he has performed services for Saddam and has been paid for those services, but notes that his payments have been delayed and reduced by pressures which the oil-for-food program was then under.

The Parliamentary committee worked closely with Norm Coleman's Senate Subcommittee on Investigations; Norm deserves a great deal of credit for focusing attention on Galloway's misdeeds and sharing documentary evidence that it accumulated with the Parliamentary committee and others. This latest revelation ought to silence Galloway's defenders once and for all, but given their historic obliviousness to evidence, it probably won't.

UPDATE: Here is the key language from Galloway's meeting with Saddam Hussein and Tariq Aziz in August 2002:

Quote:

Finally, may I say that our work has been going on for years and I believe that Your Excellency is aware of the results which we have achieved. Mr Tariq Aziz has helped us with his contacts and has used his influence to facilitate our job and facilitate the mechanism by which we have been able to obtain the funding necessary to finance our activities. But, we are now suffering from the problem of the price of oil which has resulted in a reduction in our income and delay in receiving our dues.

I don't see any way to understand those statements other than as an acknowledgement that Galloway was on Saddam's payroll.

Jolie Rouge · 08-18-2007, 02:24 AM

Houston men plead guilty in UN oil-for-food scandal

They’re lucky they weren’t charged with treason.
Via the Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...z/5063884.html

Quote:

Houston oilman David Chalmers, accused of funneling illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime at at time when Iraq was the target of strict economic sanctions, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy charge.

Chalmers’ business associate at Houston-based BayOil, Ludmil Dionissiev, pleaded guilty to one count of facilitating a shipment of merchandise into the United States, knowing that shipment to not be authorized by law.

That leaves Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt as the lone defendant still slated to go to trial in September on charges he made millions of dollars in illicit payments to Saddam’s government for the privilege of buying Iraqi crude.

Wyatt attorney Carl Parker said today that his client is not guilty and intends to proceed to trial. Parker said he does not believe today’s guilty pleas will affect Wyatt’s prospects.

“I don’t think it will mean anything to Wyatt,” Parker said. “I think the government made a stretch trying to tie them together in the first place. They’re not partners. They haven’t acted together.”

The charges stemmed from oil sales conducted under the United Nations’ scandal-plagued oil-for-food humanitarian program for Iraq.

That program was designed to allow Baghdad to export crude to help the Iraqi people while keeping the proceeds out of Saddam’s hands.

But the Iraqi government began demanding that purchasers pay a secret surcharge to lift Iraqi crude. All three men were accused of funneling payments to Saddam’s government from mid-2000 to March 2003.

So, Oscar Wyatt is still set to go to trial. Here’s the latest on his case.
Like I said, he’s lucky he isn’t charged with treason: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5053155.html

Quote:

Oscar Wyatt’s defense lawyers are trying to ensure a jury never sees an Iraqi document they say suggests the Houston oil tycoon “has committed the deplorable crime of treason.”

The 82-year-old Texas oilman is slated to stand trial in September on charges he funneled millions of dollars in illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s government in order to win lucrative oil export contracts.

The document in question suggests Wyatt discussed American troop levels and possible dates for an attack with members of Saddam’s regime, prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

While the purported discussion about troop levels and attack dates are reminiscent of some of the armchair speculation common in the runup to the war, the details varied from what actually occurred when the war started.

Wyatt attorney Gerald Shargel, in an interview today, said the document contains “not a single fact that wasn’t reported in media outlets both in the United States and internationally, not a single fact.”

In a motion filed late Monday in U.S. District Court, Wyatt’s lawyers argue: “This document essentially alleges that Wyatt has committed the deplorable crime of treason and aided an enemy of the United States.” The filing does not contain the document itself, although Wyatt’s lawyers have confirmed it is the one obtained by the Chronicle from other sources.

Wyatt’s lawyers want U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to keep the document from being presented as evidence at the trial because “such actions would likely to be considered repugnant by most Americans and could potentially cause bias.”

Ya think?

If you haven’t checked out the Oil-for-Food Facts website, you should.
http://www.oilforfoodfacts.org/