Marc Rich tied to Iraq oil

New York Daily News ^ | 12/02/04 | Bill Hutchinson

[kattracks]

Ex-fugitive Marc Rich is suspected of having become one of Saddam Hussein's middlemen in Iraq's illegal oil trade just a month after he won a controversial pardon from former President Bill Clinton, a news report said.

ABC News reported last night that Rich's alleged role in the growing UN oil-for-food scandal is under investigation by federal officials.

Rich, who was pardoned by Clinton in January 2001, and several other prominent oil traders are suspected of making illegal kickbacks to Iraq to win the lucrative oil contracts, the network reported.

The UN program was set up in 1996 to help Iraqis get food, medicine and other items that had been scarce under sanctions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But investigators say Saddam realized more than $21billion under the program through kickbacks and other scams.

Rich fled the U.S. in 1986 while facing tax evasion charges.

Bill Hutchinson

Originally published on December 2, 2004

[msnimje]

If Bill and Hill are involved in this, will they be forced to share a jail cell? Or would this be cruel and unusual punishment for Bill?

[Mo1]

No Kidding

Freepers have know this for MONTHS!!

[backhoe]

Crosslinking:

Click this picture & go to the "last" for the latest UN scandals:

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Americans' Role Eyed in U.N. Oil Scandal

Were American Oil Brokers Involved in Iraq Oil Kickback Schemes?

 

By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ

Dec. 1, 2004 — Former American fugitive Marc Rich was a middleman for several of Iraq's suspect oil deals in February 2001, just one month after his pardon from President Clinton, according to oil industry shipping records obtained by ABC News.

And a U.S. criminal investigation is looking into whether Rich, as well as several other prominent oil traders, made illegal payments to Iraq in order to obtain the lucrative oil contracts.

"Without that kind of middleman, the system would not work because the major oil companies did not want to deal with Iraq because there was a mandated kickback," said human rights investigator John Fawcett.

Another broker was New York oil trader Ben Pollner, head of Taurus Oil, who investigators say handled several billion dollars worth of the transactions now under investigation.

Pollner told ABC News he paid no bribes or kickbacks to the Iraqi regime.

Rich is still living in Switzerland and unavailable for comment.

The roles of several American oil companies, including ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, are also under investigation. ChevronTexaco received subpoenas requesting information for two separate grand jury proceedings, and said they were cooperating fully with both investigations.

The U.N. oil-for-food corruption scandal only continues to grow in scope. Today, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who is leading the congressional investigation into the program, said that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan should resign because the scandal occurred on his watch.

"I think there's a terrible stain on the credibility and the reputation of the United Nations, there's no doubt about that," said Coleman. "If we're ever to get to the bottom, how can you get there if the guy who was in charge during the course of this fraud and corruption is the guy now who is supposed to be ferreting it out?"

Top officials of the U.N., including Annan, are accused of looking the other way as some $21 billion meant for humanitarian aid was stolen by the Saddam Hussein regime.

Uncovered in the federal criminal investigation were previously undisclosed payments to Annan's son, Kojo, from his employer Cotecna. The Swiss company had been specifically hired to monitor the oil-for-food program.

Annan's son left the company in 1998 but received payments until this year.

Secretary-general since 1997, Annan said this week he was unaware of the payments. "Naturally I was very disappointed and surprised, yes," he said.

Also under criminal investigation is the U.N. official Annan put in charge of the program, Benon Sevan.

Documents discovered by U.S. forces in Iraq suggest Sevan received payments in the form of oil contacts from the Hussein regime, although Sevan has denied any wrongdoing.

[Peach]

Ping. So when will we see the MSM condemn Rich for this pardon? It would be unimaginably bad publicity if a Republican was tied up in this.

[Mia T]

Q ERTY2^bump
THE INTERMINABLE clintons
It's time to take out the trash...
A Senate en passant capture is THE MOVE...

deconstructing clinton… "just because I could"

(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)

virtualclintonlibrary.blogspot.com
http://hillarytalks.blogspot.com
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http://www.hillarytalks.us
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missus clinton's REAL virtual office update

johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com

 

COPYRIGHT MIA T 2004

[Mia T]

As long as you've got a rich [Rich?] man on your arm, you don't need a big bag.

--Elizabeth Rickard

 

pro-islamofascist-terrorist radical chic
WHY JOHN KERRY IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA

by Mia T, 5.15.04

 
(viewing movie requires Flash Player 7, available HERE)

johnkerryisdangerousforamerica.blogspot.com

 

As long as you've got a rich man on your arm, you don't need a big bag.

--Elizabeth Rickard

 

The $100 billion Iraqi Oil for Food program was by far the largest relief operation in the history of the United Nations. By extension, it's rapidly becoming the U.N.'s largest-ever scandal....

Those included rewarding friends and allies world-wide with oil allocations on very favorable terms, as well as extracting large kickbacks from oil traders and suppliers of humanitarian goods....

There can be little doubt that U.N. mismanagement contributed greatly to the negative perception of the anti-Saddam containment policy. There is also little doubt that the reward and kickback scheme--as well the possibility of exposure--was a factor as some countries weighed whether to back U.S.-led regime change in Iraq. There is even reason to suspect that some of the Saddam friends and allies who benefited may have been members of the U.N. Secretariat.

Oil for Scandal
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Thursday, March 18, 2004 12:01 a.m.

eave it to the French to make pro-islamofascist-terrorist radical chic all the rage.

They and their moneygrubbing, Oil-for-Food defrauding cohorts abroad, and their power-hungry would-be terrorist sympathizers here, are all sporting "THE LOOK."

(How many of those oh so trendy Kerry-clinton-Kennedy hate-America, blame-America-first sound bites will Al-Jazeera broadcast today?)

The trusty triad's half-truths, exaggerations and outright lies, confounded by fog of war, vagaries of peace and uncharted territory of asymmetric netherworlds, remind us that things are not always what they first seem. The UN Oil-for-Food scandal, for example, has shown us it was not "going to war with Iraq" that was "all about oil," but rather, "not going to war with Iraq." The Left, we now see, had that one, (as they have most things), exactly backward.

The dernier cri of seditious and corrupt Leftists everywhere, pro-islamofascist-terrorist radical chic renders the Left, irrespective of policy, no less dangerous to Western civilization than the terrorists they aid and abet.

[weegee]

If Carter beat Ford because of Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, what do you think this bombshell will do to Hillary's chances in 2008?

[Peach]

I'd pay cash money to see you make some of these into commercials!

[kcvl]

So, that means that Clinton's pardon wouldn't include the Oil-for-Food scandal?!

[mentor2k]

Me thinks Bill may have some to do!

[Mia T]

not a commercial, but.... ;)

As long as you've got a Rich man on your arm, you don't need a big bag

MARC RICH BECOMES OIL-FOR-FOOD MIDDLEMAN JUST ONE MONTH AFTER CLINTON PARDON

[GailA]

MASTER LIST UN OIL/SEX FOR FOOD SCANDALS

[Peach]

LOL. I'm hearing music and see a great commercial...

[PJBlogger]

Darn! Old scandals popping up again just has Hitlery was starting to measure the Oval Office for new drapes.

[prairiebreeze]

Perhaps you should add the words "and international criminals" to your tagline....

[Peach]

I think you're right! (See tagline)

[mewzilla]

This is hysterical. Rich's company was on that MEMRI list a while back, and the MSM is just figuring out the ties now? Give me a break. Well, at least we've reached the tipping point. There's no going back now.

[noutopia]

Say it aint so Bill,say it aint so!Please Bill say it aint so!Bettuch we will and he will lie again.The man is a POS.