Oil for Food World round Up

While the Australian inquiry into the UN’s Oil for Food scandal busy making headlines, it is interesting to note the activities of other countries involved. Australia’s efforts are the most aggressive to date. While many other country’s implicated are simply ignoring calls to investigate companies under their jurisdiction.
Here is a run down from recent media reports:

SOUTH AFRICA
South African President Mbeki Friday appointed a commission of inquiry to probe the alleged corrupt involvement of South African companies in the scandal.
Advocate Michael Donen to head a commission of inquiry into the alleged illegal activities of local companies mentioned in the report; including Imvume and Mocoh, which had been linked to holding company Mvelaphanda. Imvume and Mvelaphanda are headed by Sandi Majali and Tokyo Sexwale respectively.

INDIA
As reported in The Daily Juice: Indian officials were red faced when it was revealed that one of their Oil for Food Scandal investigators has his own corruption record.As an officer of the enforcement Directorate (ED) SC Adlakha was set to investigate the role of former foreign minister Natwar Singh in the UN scandal.
Adlakha, who has already traveled to London on the investigation, was caught accepting a bribe of 10,000 Rhupees in a recruitment scam in 1985.
A departmental enquiry conducted against him led to his suspension for more than a year.
He was also indicted in an internal enquiry and sent on a punishment posting to the country’s North-east.
Meanwhile the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday began proceedings to obtain a Letter Rogatory (Letter of request to competent authority for investigation in a country or place outside India) from a criminal court in the Capital in its bid to freeze bank accounts of Andaleeb Sehgal and Aditya Khanna, both close associates of former external affairs minister Natwar Singh, who were involved in the oil-for-food scam.

USA
Tyco International Ltd., a conglomerate that operates hundreds of subsidiaries, said it received a US Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena for information about any participation in the United Nations’ Iraq oil-for-food programme.The Bermuda-based company will cooperate in any investigation, Tyco said in a regulatory filing yesterday. The SEC made a request on January 31 for additional documents regarding three of Tyco’s businesses. The probe started in November 2004, Tyco said. The UN began the oil-for-food program to let former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein use oil revenue to buy food and medicine. Investigators in the US Senate have said Hussein stole $21.3 billion through the program, which was supposed to support UN sanctions on Iraq from 1996 to 2003.
Tyco receives SEC subpoena
A second SEC probe involves Innospec Inc., the U.K. chemical maker that last week changed its name from Octel Corp.
Innospec said it got a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to a probe of the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
Regulators are probing transactions involving Innospec and a Swiss subsidiary, Alcor Chemie Vertriebs Gmbh, Manchester- based Innospec said today in a regulatory filing. Innospec said it plans to cooperate with the investigation.
Innospec Gets SEC Subpoena

South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park recently pleaded not guilty to charges linked to the United Nations' Iraqi oil-for-food scandal and a U.S. judge denied him bail, saying there was a risk he would flee the country.
Park, 70, is under indictment for conspiracy to launder money and to secretly lobby on behalf of the former government of Saddam Hussein.The court is concerned about Park's past travel with large sums of cash -- he was arrested while carrying $46,000 (26,000 pounds) -- and that Park may have lied to federal officials about his previously stated intention to cooperate in the case.S.Korean lobbyist denied bail in oil-for-food case
Park claims that he was “kidnapped” by US authorities investigating possible pay-offs to top UN officials. Lawyer, Randy Schaffer, said his client never intended to travel to the United States. At a bail hearing yesterday, he argued that the arrest was illegal. He said that Mr Park had been travelling from Canada to Panama, but was taken off the plane when his flight stopped in Mexico City. “The guy is picked up in Mexico against his will and brought here,” Schaffer said.
suspect ‘kidnapped’

UK
MP George Galloway is still under a cloud and could be investigated by the Serious Fraud Office as part of an inquiry into the Iraq oil-for-food corruption scandal. A spokesman for Galloway, now Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, dismissed the new inquiry as a "complete waste of time" and claimed it was being launched "at the behest" of the US.
US investigators claim to have discovered £85,000 in Iraqi oil money in Mr Galloway's former wife Dr Amineh Abu-Zayyad's bank account.Galloway may face fraud inquiry

GERMANY
DaimlerChrysler AG has put nine senior managers on leave as a result of an investigation into the company's participation in the United Nations' sponsored 'Oil for Food' program by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC is investigating whether DaimlerChrysler bribed officials in former Iraqi president Sadam Hussein's government in order to facilitate swift delivery of products exported to that country under the program.
DaimlerChrysler puts 9 managers on leave

UN
Eight United Nations managers have been suspended with pay as part of an investigation into the world body's procurement services following scandals in the oil-for-food program in Iraq, UN officials say.
The investigation by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services is the result of a probe into contracts in the UN peacekeeping department, which is fielding about 85,000 troops, police and civilians around the world.
Four of the suspended managers are in UN Procurement Services and four were recalled from peacekeeping missions.
UN officials suspended during oil-for-food probe

FRANCE
The French justice system is investigating the alleged involvement in the scandal of two former foreign ministry officials, Jean-Bernard Merimee and Serge Boidevaix.
Allegations made by Didier Houssin, a high-level French official connected to the program claim authorities knew of fraud being committed by government officials involved in the oil-for-food program.

SWEDEN
The Swedish truck and construction equipment manufacturer AB Volvo has said that a few executives involved in the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq have left the company. A Volvo spokesman, Marten Wikforss, said that several employees in the group's construction equipment subsidiary had been disciplined for not asking questions about possible bribery by an agent helping it to secure deals with the former Iraqi regime between 2000 and 2001 under the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
AB Volvo executives leave following Iraq oil-for-food scandal