Correction: The gung ho executive was from the AWB and the deal
involved BHP via its affiliate company Tigris Petroleum
SENIOR AWB managers discussed circumventing United Nations sanctions with the former director-general of Saddam Hussein's oil ministry to recover a $10 million debt owed to BHP Billiton affiliate, Tigris Petroleum, documents reveal. Evidence before the oil-for-food inquiry shows Sabah Jumah, a former director-general of Iraq's oil ministry, met AWB managers Chris Whitwell and Dominic Hogan in Baghdad in October 2002. Documents show Mr Jumah had been engaged as a consultant by Tigris Petroleum at the time of the meeting. In a report of their Baghdad trip, Mr Whitwell and Mr Hogan remarked upon Mr Jumah's oil ministry links and described him as "well connected with Iraqi elite". The AWB officials and Mr Jumah discussed inflating the price of wheat contracts as a way to deceive the UN's oil-for-food program and recoup a debt owed to Tigris. Economic sanctions meant the UN program was the only way companies could conduct business with Iraq.
(the age)
mm
