French bank aided Saddam’s thievery
Shocking as it may seem, it looks like the French actually helped Saddam Hussein steal lots and lots of moolah from the UN’s Oil for Food program.
The French bank that handled funds for the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq made tens of millions of dollars in fees and did not properly monitor transactions involving Saddam Hussein’s oil sales, congressional investigators said yesterday.
The New York branch of the Banque Nationale de Paris-Paribas, or BNP Paribas, was the sole bank for administering the $64 billion U.N. program and did not have adequate checks on whether money was being funneled to terrorists, a House International Relations Committee probe found.
“We have uncovered what appears to be serious malfeasance on an international scale,” said Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the committee. “There are indications that the bank may have been noncompliant in administering the oil-for-food program. If true, these possible banking lapses may have facilitated Saddam Hussein’s manipulation and corruption of the program.”
Committee investigators uncovered evidence that BNP Paribas made payments without proof that goods were delivered and sanctioned payments to third parties not identified as authorized recipients, Mr. Hyde said at a hearing yesterday.
Mr. Hyde said investigators think the bank “facilitated improper payments to companies that were shipping illegal goods to Iraq.”
Possibly related posts...
| More from Eye Doc
Stumble It!
