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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (148908)	10/25/2004 12:34:03 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Absolutely. In Iraq, the money said, lift sanctions and buy the oil under market rates! We didn't follow the money. But the French sure did. And the evidence is becoming increasingly strong on this point. From today's WSJ: French Probe of Total Is Extended To Upper Ranks of Management Investigators Seek to Learn If Bribes Were Made to Get Oil From Iraq and Russia By BHUSHAN BAHREE and JOHN CARREYROU and DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 25, 2004 A French investigating magistrate reached into the upper ranks of oil giant Total SA as part of a probe into whether the French company paid millions of dollars in illegal commissions to get oil from Saddam Hussein's Iraq and from Russia. Investigating magistrate Philippe Courroye placed Alain Lechevalier, head of Total's exploration and production business in the Middle East, under formal investigation last week for possible "complicity in the misuse of company funds," according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr. Courroye's investigation, which began in 2002, is focusing, among other things, on whether Total had corrupt dealings with the Hussein regime during the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program, which lasted from late 1996 to early 2003. During that time, Total was among the top five buyers of Iraqi crude oil under the program with purchases totaling $1.75 billion (€1.38 billion), a report released last week by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker showed. Mr. Volcker is investigating the Oil-for-Food program on behalf of the U.N. Under the Oil-for-Food program, all payments for Iraqi oil were required to go into an escrow account managed by the U.N., which then disbursed the funds to Mr. Hussein's regime for approved purchases of food. But Iraq was allowed to choose buyers of its oil -- a right that it used to demand under-the-table payments from buyers. These "surcharges" were paid directly to Mr. Hussein's regime, bypassing the U.N. In addition to trying to establish the legality of the commissions paid by Total to intermediaries in its dealings with Iraq and Russia, Mr. Courroye is trying to determine whether some of the money was kicked back to French officials. In the course of several separate but similar investigations, French magistrates have found that "where there are bribes, there are usually kickbacks, so Courroye is definitely looking for kickbacks," a person in the Paris public prosecutor's office said. So far, Mr. Courroye has uncovered millions of dollars of questionable payments made by Total to a small Swiss company called Telliac, say people familiar with the probe. Telliac is thought to be an intermediary Total used to funnel money to officials in Iraq and Russia, the people familiar with the investigation said. Efforts to contact Telliac were unsuccessful. At the time, Total was openly courting the Iraqi government in the hope of being awarded contracts to develop two big oil fields, if and when the U.N. lifted its international embargo on the country. But Total never went ahead and signed contracts, because of the sanctions. It's unclear what aspect of Total's dealings with Russia are being investigated. Total has tried to distance itself from the investigation by saying that the probe is focused on Telliac, not Total. But Mr. Courroye's investigators raided Total's suburban Paris headquarters last month and, with the addition of Mr. Lechevalier, Mr. Courroye has now questioned four current or formal Total executives. A Total spokeswoman said Friday she had no information about Mr. Lechevalier's questioning. After being interrogated by Mr. Courroye Thursday, Mr. Lechevalier was released upon payment of a €100,000 bond and asked not to leave France or communicate with any other Total employees, the people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Lechevalier reports to Total exploration and production chief Christophe de Margerie, who reports directly to Total CEO Thierry Desmarest. Total is the world's fourth-largest publicly traded oil company. In 1999, it took over domestic rival Elf-Aquitaine. An investigation into Elf's dealings while it was still independent resulted in a major scandal. Investigators uncovered a system whereby Elf executives paid bribes to foreign officials in positions to help the company land business and received multimillion-dollar kickbacks

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (148908)	10/25/2004 3:57:56 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Absolutely. In Iraq, the money said, lift sanctions and buy the oil under market rates! We didn't follow the money. But the French sure did. Your selective memory is astounding. The US was in cahoots with Saddam at one point and wanted to get him to build a pipeline through Jordan so that the US could access that oil. During this time Saddam was using chemical weapons. Don't talk to me about the morality of using money to access oil by other nations - the US is not clean in this regard either. You should not forget that the US intended to pay for this war with oil revenue, from Iraq. A marvellous, simplistic plan from a simpleton president -- self-funding war! Excellent. We'll be seen as liberators! Terrific! Let the oil gush. Follow the money indeed...