Texan oil company exec charged in Oil for Food 'scandel'.

Well well well; the recent attacks that attempted to discredit the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (and the UN in general) got nowhere and as the recent multi-million $ independant report showed KA had no case to answer afterall.

But those who said the so-called 'Oil for Food scandel' would reveal shady dealings between business people in the USA trading with Iraq and Saddam illegally are being shown to have been completely correct.

Now that the hornets nest has been well and truely stirred up it is becoming apparant that there were indeed US firms involved (maybe that is how those on the US right-wing knew there was a 'scandel' of some sort.....did they already know that some of their own business people were involved!).

David Chalmers Jr, his oil company Bayoil of Texas, and Bayoil Supply & Trading Ltd, based in the Bahamas, face federal criminal charges as part of the scheme to pay millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Iraq.

The indictment charges that the bribes were paid so the Bayoil companies could sell Iraqi oil under the UN programme.

According to the indictment, Mr Chalmers and his two associates played a "pivotal role" in fixing the price of oil that was traded under the programme and "facilitated payment of illegal surcharges" on the oil to the former Saddam regime.

"These secret payments were illegal kickbacks... to front companies and bank accounts designated and controlled by the Iraqi regime," Mr Kelley said.

"The defendants were essentially diverting funds that otherwise would have been deposited in the oil-for-food escrow account, from which humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people was to be paid," he added.

news.bbc.co.uk...

- One can only wonder if this is the first of many.

Actually he is one of them the other ones I believe include Texaco and Chevron, hummm I believe the bushes are involve with the Chevron.

This is going to be very interesting to see.