Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 19, 2007 12:18:53 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Bush Crime Family Paid Million$ in Bribes to Saddam in UN
"Oil for Food" Scam
Texan oilman pleads guilty in oil-for-food case
By Paritosh Bansal Fri Aug 17, 6:54 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070817/wl_nm/un_iraq_trial_dc
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oilman David Chalmers and two companies
he owns pleaded guilty on Friday to paying millions of dollars in
secret kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the United Nations oil-
for-food program.
Chalmers, 53, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one
count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, just weeks before he was
due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt.
Earlier on Friday, Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader based
in Houston, pleaded guilty to smuggling. Prosecutors said
Dionissiev, 61, worked with Chalmers to buy Iraqi oil for Chalmers'
companies -- Bayoil USA Inc and Bayoil Supply and Trading Ltd.
The $67 billion oil-for-food program began in 1996 and ended in
2003 to ease the impact of sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein's
government after it invaded Kuwait in 1990.
The charges against Chalmers and his co-defendants stemmed from
Iraq's requirement from 2000 to 2003 that recipients of oil should
pay a secret surcharge, in violation of U.N. sanctions and U.S.
law, to front companies and bank accounts controlled by the Iraqi
government.
The secret payments were not made to the United Nations' monitored
bank account from which humanitarian goods could be purchased for
the Iraqi people, but in a secret deal with Baghdad outside of the
program.
Chalmers, who was the sole shareholder of Bayoil, decided to pay
illegal kickbacks, prosecutors said, while Dionissiev helped
facilitate the export of Iraqi oil.
Both men face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but under a
plea deal Chalmers is likely to receive 3 to 4 years when he is
sentenced on November 19. Dionissiev is likely to receive up to
six months under his plea agreement, his lawyer said.
Chalmers and Bayoil USA Inc, based in Houston, and Bayoil Supply
and Trading Ltd, based in the Bahamas, also agreed to pay a total
restitution of more than $9 million dollars. A lawyer for Chalmers
and the two companies declined comment.
When Bayoil was indicted in April 2005, prosecutors said the oil
trader played a pivotal role in efforts to fix the price of oil
under the oil-for-food program.
U.S. and U.N. investigations have found that U.S. lobbyists and
U.N. and Iraqi officials enriched themselves through kickbacks and
bribery.
Wyatt, former chairman and founder of Coastal Corp, also accused of
paying million of dollars in kickbacks, is due to go to trial on
September 5.
Bush Cronies Account for
52% of UN 'Oil for Food' Payola
Submitted by CactusPat on May 18, 2005 - 1:42am.
http://www.democrats.com/node/4667
US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1485546,00.html
(GuardianUK) Report claims blind eye was turned to sanctions
busting by American firms - The Bush administration turned a blind
eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil,
according to a new Senate investigation. A report released last
night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee
presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made
aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein
regime but did nothing to stop them.
The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged
by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians
like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French
minister, Charles Pasqua... the Senate report found that US oil
purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in
return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put
together..
"The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which
violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money
Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the
report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated
the illicit oil sales. The report is likely to ease pressure from
conservative Republicans on Kofi Annan to resign from his post as
UN secretary general...
...Yesterday's report makes two principal allegations against the
Bush administration. Firstly, it found the US treasury failed to
take action against a Texas oil company, Bayoil, which facilitated
payment of "at least $37m in illegal surcharges to the Hussein
regime". The surcharges were a violation of the UN Oil For Food
programme, by which Iraq was allowed to sell heavily discounted oil
to raise money for food and humanitarian supplies. However, Saddam
was allowed to choose which companies were given the highly
lucrative oil contracts. Between September 2000 and September 2002
(when the practice was stopped) the regime demanded kickbacks of 10
to 30 US cents a barrel in return for oil allocations.
In its second main finding, the report said the US military and the
state department gave a tacit green light for shipments of nearly
8m barrels of oil bought by Jordan, a vital American ally, entirely
outside the UN-monitored Oil For Food system. Jordan was permitted
to buy some oil directly under strict conditions but these
purchases appeared to be under the counter. The report details a
series of efforts by UN monitors to obtain information about
Bayoil's oil shipments in 2001 and 2002, and the lack of help
provided by the US treasury.
After repeated requests over eight months from the UN and the US
State Department, the Treasury's office of foreign as sets control
wrote to Bayoil in May 2002, requesting a report on its
transactions but did not "request specific information by UN or
direct Bayoil to answer the UN's questions". Bayoil's owner, David
Chalmers, has been charged over the company's activities. His
lawyer Catherine Recker told the Washington Post: "Bayoil and David
Chalmers [said] they have done nothing illegal and will vigorously
defend these reckless accusations."
The Jordanian oil purchases were shipped in the weeks before the
war, out of the Iraqi port of Khor al-Amaya, which was operating
without UN approval or surveillance. Investigators found
correspondence showing that Odin Marine Inc, the US company
chartering the seven huge tankers which picked up the oil at Khor
al-Amaya, repeatedly sought and received approval from US military
and civilian officials that the ships would not be confiscated by
US Navy vessels in the Maritime Interdiction Force (MIF) enforcing
the embargo. Odin was reassured by a state department official that
the US "was aware of the shipments and has determined not to take
action".
The company's vice president, David Young, told investigators that
a US naval officer at MIF told him that he "had no objections" to
the shipments. "He said that he was sorry he could not say anything
more. I told him I completely understood and did not expect him to
say anything more," Mr Young said. An executive at Odin Maritime
confirmed the senate account of the oil shipments as "correct" but
declined to comment further.
It was not clear last night whether the Democratic report would be
accepted by Republicans on the Senate investigations committee. The
Pentagon declined to comment. The US representative's office at the
UN referred inquiries to the state department, which fail to return
calls.
------------------
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD505B.html
Under the Oil-for-Food program, the Saddam regime was charging a
hefty surcharge per barrel of oil—money that went directly into the
bank accounts of Saddam and his closest officials. According to the
Democratic minority report, while French company TotalFinaElf
objected to paying the surcharge, American companies like Chevron,
ExxonMobil and Texaco began to acquire Iraqi oil through third
parties that were paying the surcharge. These third parties
included Bayoil.
Minority report documents indicate that one of the largest
recipients of Bayoil Iraqi oil shipments was Enron, the bankrupt
company that served as a virtual slush fund for the political
campaign of George W. Bush.
At the same time Enron Chairman Kenneth ("Kenny Boy") Lay was
involved in Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force secret
dealings and when he was stuffing hundreds of thousands of dollars
into the pockets of George W. Bush and Cheney's political campaign,
he also managed to illegally stick $206,757 into the pockets of
Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal also involves one of the Bush
children — Dorothy "Doro" Bush Koch, sister of George W. Bush and
married to Bobby Koch, reportedly a cousin in the oil industry Koch
family, the owner of Koch Industries, which is also one of Bush's
largest political donors.
The minority committee report indicates that Koch Industries was
also a major recipient of illegal Iraqi oil and a huge source of
kickbacks to Saddam Hussein:
The total sum in kickbacks from George W. Bush's cousin-in-laws to
Saddam's bank accounts: $1,294,620.
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