Posted on 02/06/2005 3:47:46 PM PST by NormsRevenge
GENEVA (AP) - Companies that bought Iraqi oil from traders who allegedly spent billions of dollars to bribe Saddam Hussein for contracts under the U.N. oil-for-food program now could be implicated in the vast web of corruption uncovered in the investigation by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, a Swiss criminal lawyer told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The alleged payoffs to win Iraqi contracts amounted to as much as $2.5 billion, Mark Pieth said in an AP interview.
"We are trying to find out who paid the surcharges eventually," said Pieth, one of three commission members leading a probe into allegations of corruption in the program. Volcker heads the investigation and issued an interim report last week in New York. Pieth was interviewed by telephone in New York where he joined Volcker for the release of the report.
The United Nations' oil-for-food program was its largest humanitarian aid operation and ran from 1996 to 2003 when it ended. It was designed to allow the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from sanctions put in place in 1991 after Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Pieth said companies that bought the oil from traders could face prosecution or penalties if they were aware that the middlemen had paid illegal surcharges, Pieth said.
"If the final buyer is aware of what is going on, they were in the role of guarantor, knowing that they were involved in paying the surcharge," Pieth said. "There is a risk to the end buyer."
Pieth said it would be up to national authorities to carry out any legal proceedings against firms which paid illegal kickbacks. The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, which has already imposed a fine on a Swiss-based firm for paying an illegal surcharge, has said it will investigate the Iraqi dealings of several more trading firms, and punish any found to have paid kickbacks.
Pieth said he was not now able to disclose names of any companies, but insisted that investigators were certain some oil buyers had made illegal payments and tried to circumvent U.N. sanctions.
Because so many companies were involved in the program, the investigators' final report - which is due to made public this summer - will focus on naming those who committed the most serious offences, Pieth said.
But investigators are still encountering some problems in obtaining records from offshore tax havens, Pieth added.
"We're seeking help from places like Lebanon, Monaco, Jordan, Liechtenstein," Pieth said. "I'm very optimistic that we will get help from them, but the difficulty is that we need help soon."
Volcker's panel will continue to look into allegations against Benon Sevan, the director of the U.N. program, Pieth said. Sevan was singled out by Volcker for the appearance of engaging in a conflict of interest.
Sevan solicited oil allocations from Iraq on behalf of an oil trading company, Africa Middle East Petroleum, or AMEP, between 1998 and 2001, and it raised concerns he may have received kickbacks for the help, the Volcker investigators said.
"We are going to continue also on Mr. Sevan, especially on the money angles," Pieth said. "We believed the general public needed some information on what we're doing."
AMEP president Fakhry Abdelnour told the investigation that he paid an illegal surcharge of $160,000 to an Iraqi-controlled bank account in Jordan in October 2001, using some of the proceeds he had received from the sale of oil to the Royal Dutch/Shell Group.
Shell has denied knowing that Sevan was involved or of the payment of kickbacks on any Iraqi oil it purchased.
Pieth also said the Volcker panel will investigate potential improprieties committed by other United Nations officials.
"It's not just Benon Sevan," he said.
Regarding the employment of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son by the Swiss firm Cotecna Inspection SA, Pieth said the only issue was whether there had been a "conflict of interest."
Cotecna had a U.N. contract to certify deals for humanitarian supplies imported by Iraq under the oil-for-food program. The company is under investigation in connection with suspected corruption.
Annan's son Kojo worked for Cotecna until 1998 and received $30,000 a year for over five years after that from the Geneva-based company. The United Nations hired the company on Dec. 31, 1998 to certify that food, medicine and other goods entering Iraq corresponded to a list of goods approved for import under the oil-for-food rules.
"There are certainly allegations, and we're certainly looking into them," Pieth said. "There's a potential conflict of interest, that's why we're looking at him and his father."
Run 'em down, smoke 'em out, hang 'em high!
Hoping to do political damage, no doubt. The iraqi PM said he had a list of the names, and he'd release them some time ago. I hope he does.
Check out this list of countries that got oil vouchers. Russia got 2.551 Billion barrels of oil!!! That's more than the combined total of ALL the other countries...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296660/posts
Russia and France were the two countries that backed Saddam and are known to have had large oil dealings with Iraq.
China also sided with these countries on the Security Council when they tried to block the Iraq war. But they may have acted out of their usual knee-jerk opposition to U.S. interests.
"Russia and France were the two countries that backed Saddam.."
Exactly. In this case, follow the oil, then the money.
....mark
"Exactly. In this case, follow the oil, then the money."
Jesse Jackson was involved?
bump
"Sevan solicited oil allocations from Iraq on behalf of an oil trading company, Africa Middle East Petroleum, or AMEP, between 1998 and 2001, and it raised concerns he may have received kickbacks for the help, the Volcker investigators said."
I want to check out AMEP. Could this be why the UN didn't give the mayhem in Rawanda or the Sudan any concern?
The article also said: "Because so many companies were involved in the program, the investigators' final report - which is due to made public this summer - will focus on naming those who committed the most serious offences, Pieth said."
I want to know who they all were.
Germany also sided with the French and Russians. Yet there was not a single German or German firm on the payoff list.
Does this mean the German opposition to the U.S. was based on principle? Or that the Germans could be had for literally nothing?
Africa Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd., which is cited in the letter, is registered in Panama and was also approved by the U.N. to buy Iraqi oil under Oil-for-Food. While Panama registration documents list only Panamanian nominees as directors, the Journal has established that AMEP is owned and managed by Fakhry Abdelnour, a Geneva-based oil trader with superb connections in Egypt. The company was registered in the U.K. in the '80s and dissolved in 1992. Mr. Abdelnour's name does not appear on British registration documents, but his brother's and mother's, Munir Abdelnour and Ehtedal Amin Ghali, do.
In a phone conversation, Munir Abdelnour, leader of the Wafd opposition party in Egypt's parliament and a prominent businessman, said he has nothing to do with the company, despite his name appearing as a director of the now-defunct U.K.-registered company. "Africa Middle East Petroleum is a company owned and managed by my brother. He might have used my name, but I have absolutely no clue."
Fakhry Abelnour (whose wife is Panamanian and related to Panama's president) has close ties to Egypt's oil minister. He comes from a prominent Coptic family that is related to that of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Mr. Annan's immediate predecessor, and Mr. Sevan's former boss when the latter was U.N. envoy in Afghanistan.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004801
snip--
Good digging, interesting..
Putin/Chirac bump!
Thanks for posting.
BTTT!
If some of these buyers can be apprehended, I think they will squeal like pigs but sing like canaries, thus implicating more and more from the Useless Nations.
Funny that we haven't heard diddly from the International Criminal Court, that vaunted, ethical organization which has purely objective goals in its justice seeking.
Bet on it.
You're asking questions I don't know the answers to, of course, because German politicians don't confide in me. But I would guess that Germany sided with France because to do so has been central to their foreign policy for many years.
They are very closely allied with France for at least two reasons: 1) it makes them part of the core element in the EU and gives them effective control of Europe, with the French and other allies such as Belgium; and 2) Being close to France gives Germany a veneer of moral legitimacy after having played the rogue three times running, in 1870, WW I, and WW II. It helps get modern Germany out of the shadow of Bismark, the Kaiser, and Hitler.
Sticking close to France is as important for Germany as the Special Relationship with the U.S. is important to Britain.
I suspect part of the answer to your question is that Germany has been seeking stronger commercial ties with China. Also, I'd consider the possibility of German companies working through front companies/banks in Switzerland and Turkey. Just a couple thoughts off the top of my head--will think about it some more.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.