Iraq to file oil-for-food lawsuit in U.S. courts
The legal action will target alleged fraud in the U.N. program under the Hussein regime.
BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government announced today that it intends to file suit in United States courts to recover funds allegedly embezzled from the United Nations oil-for-food program during Saddam Hussein's rule.
A statement by government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the lawsuits would target companies and individuals that conspired to corrupt the U.N. program.
Dabbagh did not name any companies or say how much the government hoped to gain by going to court, but his statement cited the findings of a 2005 U.N. inquiry into the program.
That investigation, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, concluded that 2,400 companies and individuals participated in fraud that included $1.8 billion in kickbacks to Hussein.
After the inquiry several of those named were prosecuted in the U.S. and Europe, resulting in prison sentences for two Texas oilmen and restitution from several companies totaling 10 of millions of dollars.
But little has been done to recover larger sums from those named in the Volcker report in countries including Russia, China, Yemen, Egypt, Vietnam, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.
The oil-for-food program was intended to allow humanitarian goods to reach Iraq while the country was under international sanctions following its invasion of Kuwait, which precipitated the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
From 1996 through the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the Iraqi government was allowed to sell oil in exchange for food, medical supplies and essential mechanical equipment.
The Volcker report found that Hussein insisted that kickbacks be paid to secure oil contracts.
Dabbagh said the government would set up a process to work with companies or individuals named in the U.N. inquiry that chose to "resolve their accountability" out of court.
He said the move was intended to assure foreign investors that "business in and with Iraq will be conducted transparently and in accordance with existing laws."
Elsewhere in Iraq today, a car bomb near the town of Duluiya, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed six police and one member of the Sons of Iraq group paid by the U.S. military to provide security, police said.
The bomb was in a pickup truck left by the roadside. Khalf Juboori, who lives nearby, said the vehicle exploded when police tried to search it.
The head of intelligence for the operation to restore government authority in Basra was slain Saturday night in east Baghdad, police said. Brig. Gen. Jabbar Musaid was leaving a relative's home when gunmen opened fire on his car.
doug.smith@latimes.com
