The Iraqi government sued dozens of companies, including oil giant Chevron Corp., for more than $10 billion on Monday, saying they paid kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The civil lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court in Manhattan, seeks to recover damages from companies investigated by a U.N.-commissioned inquiry, claiming they cheated the Iraqi people out of benefits of the $67 billion U.N. program.
The lawsuit says billions of dollars were lost, "all of which were directly translatable into food, medicine and other humanitarian goods that were supposed to reach the Iraqi people."
The lawsuit said the defendants had violated U.S. racketeering laws including mail and wire fraud and money laundering. Chevron and Swiss oil trading firm Vitol were also accused of breaching their fiduciary duties.
Other companies named in the lawsuit include European bank BNP Paribas, drug makers GlaxoSmithKline and Roche Holding, and units of drug company Schering-Plough, as well as several units of Switzerland's engineering company ABB Group.
The lawsuit also names AWB Ltd -- Australia's largest wheat exporter. A 2006 Australian government judicial inquiry found the company paid $222 million in kickbacks to Saddam's regime for wheat sales.
Note to Iraq: Good luck getting any of the money back. Those are some of the most heavyweight companies in the world. Between them they own more lawyers, judges, politicians, and heads of state than you have grains of sand. They will either get the lawsuit dismissed out-of-hand all over the world, or keep it in court so long you will impoverish yourselves for generations. Even if your great-grandchildren manage to get a judgment, you will likely never see a dime, or the equivalent in whatever kinda money you use.
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