By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Iraqi government sued dozens ofcompanies, including oil giant Chevron, for more than $10billion (5 billion pounds) on Monday, saying they paidkickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's governmentunder the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The civil lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court inManhattan, seeks to recover damages from companies investigatedby a U.N.-commissioned inquiry, claiming they cheated the Iraqipeople out of benefits of the $67 billion U.N. program.
The U.N. oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003,was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions after Iraqinvaded Kuwait in 1990. The program allowed Baghdad to sell oilin order to buy humanitarian goods.
The lawsuit says billions of dollars were lost, "all ofwhich were directly translatable into food, medicine and otherhumanitarian goods that were supposed to reach the Iraqipeople."
Among the individuals named in the lawsuit are Texas oilmenOscar Wyatt and David Chalmers, who both admitted to payingmillions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam's regime.
But a U.N.-commissioned inquiry headed by former U.S.Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker found the program wascorrupted by 2,200 companies from 66 countries that paid $1.8billion in kickbacks to Iraqi officials to win supply deals.
The lawsuit follows U.S. criminal investigations into theprogram, which produced the convictions of individuals,including Wyatt and Chalmers, and oil companies named in thecomplaint, including Chevron, which agreed to pay $30 millionto resolve criminal and civil liabilities.
Most of the companies named in the lawsuit could notimmediately be reached for comment.
CORRUPTION
The lawsuit said the defendants had violated U.S.racketeering laws including mail and wire fraud and moneylaundering. Chevron and Swiss oil trading firm Vitol were alsoaccused of breaching their fiduciary duties.
"The corruption of the United Nations Oil-For-FoodProgramme (OFFP) has been described as the largest financialfraud in human history, but its impact on the people of Iraqwent far beyond financial loss," the lawsuit begins. "Thecorruption of the OFFP affected the very lives and health ofthe Iraqi people."
Other companies named in the lawsuit include European bankBNP Paribas, drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and Roche Holding, andunits of drug company Schering-Plough, as well as several unitsof Switzerland's engineering company ABB Group.
The lawsuit also names AWB Ltd -- Australia's largest wheatexporter. A 2006 Australian government judicial inquiry foundthe company paid $222 million in kickbacks to Saddam's regimefor wheat sales.
"We have not yet received the court documents. Once we havereviewed the documents we will respond accordingly," AWBspokesman Peter McBride said.
AWB faces several suits in the United States over itsbusiness in Iraq. One case is on behalf of Iraqi citizensclaiming it contributed to injuries and damages sustained bythe plaintiffs by giving substantial assistance to thegovernment of Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. criminal prosecutions found Wyatt and Chalmers,who acted on behalf of his two oil corporations Bayoil Supplyand Trading and Bayoil USA Inc. and other companies, includingEl Paso, complied with the then-Iraqi government's demands topay secret surcharges, in violation of U.N. sanctions and U.S.law, to front companies and bank accounts controlled by theSaddam's government.
Wyatt, the founder of Houston's Coastal Corp, met directlywith Saddam and became the most prominent figure imprisonedover the scandal when he was sentenced to one year in prison inNovember.
A self-made billionaire who started out as a cropduster andWorld War Two pilot, Wyatt went on to found Coastal in 1955,selling it to El Paso Corp in 2000 and 2001 for $17 billion.
(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York and(Jonathan Standing in Singapore; Editing by Michelle Nicholsand Eric Walsh)
