UNITED NATIONS - Investigators of the U.N. oil-for-food program issued a final report Thursday that accused more than 2,200 U.S. and foreign companies, and prominent politicians, of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to bilk the operation of $1.8 billion.
The 623-page document was a scathing indictment that exposed the scope of a scam that allegedly involved such name-brand companies as DaimlerChrysler and Siemens AG, as well as Texas-based Bayoil and Coastal Corp. It meticulously detailed how the $64 billion program became a cash cow for Saddam and more than half the companies participating in oil-for-food - at the expense of regular Iraqis suffering under tough U.N. sanctions. It blamed shoddy U.N. management and the world's most powerful nations for allowing the corruption to go on for years.
"The corruption of the program by Saddam would not nearly have been so pervasive if there had been diligent management by the United Nations and its agencies," said Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who led the investigation.
The investigators found that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid illegal kickbacks using a variety of methods, and those paying illegal oil surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries.
Most of the contracts went to Russian and French companies and individuals, who were rewarded for their governments' outspoken opposition to the sanctions. Even firms in countries supportive of the sanctions found ways to manipulate the system illegally - sometimes by using Russian firms as middlemen.
While most of the names of those individuals and companies were known, the extensive involvement of U.S. firms will be embarrassing to the United States government, which has been a leading critic of corruption in oil-for-food.
Oil contractors listed included Russian giant Gazprom and Lukoil Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of the Russian company Lukoil.
The founder and former chairman of Coastal, Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt, pleaded not guilty Thursday in New York to charges that he conspired to pay several million dollars in illegal kickbacks to Saddam's regime to win contracts through the program.
