Iraq to sue firms over oil-for-food scandal

LEGAL ACTION: Iraq has said it will sue companies and individuals over the Saddam-era oil-for-food scandal. (AFP)

Iraq said on Sunday it plans to file lawsuits against a group of companies and individuals in US courts over their alleged role in a United Nations oil-for-food scam under Saddam Hussein's regime.

Government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said Baghdad was taking this step to hold all those who benefited from the scam "accountable for their actions".

"The oil-for-food programme was subject to huge financial scandals by companies and others [who] conspired with Saddam Hussein to embezzle large sums of money through kickbacks, inflated prices and the supply of shoddy goods," he said in a statement.

Al-Dabbagh did not name any companies or individuals against whom the legal action was planned, however.

The oil-for-food programme ran from 1996 until 2003, when US-led forces invaded Iraq.

It allowed Baghdad to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods which the country lacked because of tight UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Saddam's government allegedly embezzled millions of dollars from the scheme, sparking a scandal that caused major embarrassment to the United Nations.

Last October, the US magazine Vanity Fair reported that the Federal Reserve shipped to Baghdad a total of $12 billion, including oil-for-food funds handed over by the United Nations, between April 2003 and June 2004.

"At least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed," it said.

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