U.N.: Oil-for-food kickbacks rife

Half the 4,500 companies that took part in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges and are being given a chance to respond to the accusations, two top investigators said. Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who heads the U.N.-backed investigation, said “the definitive list” of more than 4,500 private contractors involved in the program will include for the first time the entities behind so-called front companies. Richard Goldstone, a former Yugoslav war crimes prosecutor and a member of Volcker’s Independent Inquiry Committee, said many contracts were accompanied by side letters containing “evidence of kickbacks.”

From Herald news services