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Saudi scandal takes off again over prince's birthday plane By Agence France Presse (AFP) Saturday, June 16, 2007 LONDON: British defense giant BAE bought Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan an Airbus plane under a multi-billion pound arms deal and is still paying the costs of flying it, The Guardian newspaper said Friday. The latest allegation met with renewed denials of wrongdoing from BAE, which said it does not pay or receive bribes or "offer other improper inducements," although a spokesman declined to comment on the specific plane charge. The newspaper last week alleged that BAE transferred secret payments totaling more...

A 2005 intern in U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's Capitol Hill office had ties to Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer and political fundraiser now under indictment, according to a published report. The 20-year-old student, who was paid an $804 stipend for the competitive five-week internship, was recommended by Rezko, now a main figure in a kickback scheme involving investment firms seeking state business, the Chicago Tribune reported in its Sunday editions. The intern is the son of Glenview businessman Joseph Aramanda, who once served as a chief operating officer of a Rezko company and had a long-term business relationship with Rezko,...

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. [snip] But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.

The general manager of a shipping company based in the United Arab Emirates has made an extraordinary claim at the oil-for-food inquiry. The executive said the British embassy, US Navy and the Royal Navy were all aware of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein in 2001. The statement from Michael Wallbanks, the general manager of P&O Nedlloyd only arrived at the commission this morning. He said that when he arrived in Dubai in 2000, he became aware that Iraq imposed a 10 per cent tax on all goods shipped to the country. The commission was told that most exporters chose to...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An investigation into the oil-for-food program will accuse for the first time on Monday the director of the defunct $67 billion U.N. operation of getting cash from oil deals.

OTTAWA, Canada (AP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin scrambled Monday to prevent the fall of his government amid a kickback scandal in his Liberal Party, as a new poll showed the opposition Conservatives would easily win fresh elections if held today. In what some say is Canada's version of Watergate, in terms of magnitude and potential damage, Martin reiterated that he had nothing to do with the ethics fiasco, in which party members are accused of having taken kickbacks from advertising agencies hired to promote federalism in the rebellious French-speaking province of Quebec. "Not only do I have the moral...

ADLAI STEVENSON once argued that a politician is a statesman who “approaches every question with an open mouth”. If the performance of Jan Egeland, of the UN’s Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is an indication, the same is true of those paid by the United Nations. A week ago, despite just one day having passed since the Asian tsunami, with the reported death toll one tenth of what it is now believed to be, and ignoring the fact that public holidays are never the easiest times to start organising an aid effort, Mr Egeland saw fit to dismiss...

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A federal judge sentenced a former Wisconsin state senator to four years in prison Thursday for a kickback scheme prosecutors said involved hundreds of thousands of dollars and for using his legislative staff to run personal errands. Gary George, once known as the "Teflon" senator because scandals seemed to slide off him, apologized for the errand-running but denied the other allegations involving state welfare money - even though he pleaded guilty to them. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa said George betrayed the public's trust. "A politician has to keep in mind he is, above all else, a...

A BRITISH engineering firm admitted yesterday that it may have paid millions in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime. WEIR GROUP, which has former NATO chief George Robertson on its board, is probing £4.2million in irregular payments in Iraq. After previous denials the oil and water pump maker conceded that extra payments made to an agent to land United Nations contracts could have lined Saddam’s pockets. A spokesman for the Glasgow-based group — Scotland’s biggest engineer — said: “The investigations have not been able to establish the ultimate recipients of the payments to the agent. “Therefore the group cannot rule...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"/> June 27, 2004 As Doctors Write Prescriptions, Drug Company Writes a CheckBy GARDINER HARRIS he check for $10,000 arrived in the mail unsolicited. The doctor who received it from the drug maker Schering-Plough said it was made out to him personally in exchange for an attached "consulting" agreement that required nothing other than his commitment to prescribe the company's medicines. Two other physicians said in separate interviews that they, too, received checks unbidden from Schering-Plough, one of the world's biggest drug companies. "I threw mine away," said the first doctor, who spoke on...

WASHINGTON — How fares the multination cover-up of the richest rip-off in world history? Obstruction of justice has never had it so good. Last month, after some badgering in this space and elsewhere, the House International Relations Committee announced it would look into the $5 billion kickback scandal in the United Nations' six-year Iraqi oil-for-food program, the largest humanitarian aid effort ever undertaken. Our State Department, eager for U.N. help in Iraq, wants no revelations of U.N. ineptitude and corruption. It waltzed the committee staff around. Senate Foreign Relations, however, not wanting to be upstaged by its House counterpart, called...

Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 December, 2003, 23:50 GMT E-mail this to a friend Printable version Sharon son told to submit files Sharon answered police questions for more than six hours in October Israel's highest court has told Ariel Sharon's younger son, Gilad, to release files police say could show corruption. Israeli police are investigating allegations that Mr Sharon accepted illegal contributions in his 1999 campaign to lead the Likud party. Mr Sharon denies wrongdoing and has said he will co-operate with police. But sons Gilad and Omri, who managed his victorious party leadership campaign, have refused to answer police questions...

50 bench advertisements and three signs urge voters not to vote for him. A copy of the controversial $100,000 check paid to state Rep. Jaime Capelo by lawyer Rene Rodriguez is now available for viewing on billboards. The Good Government Political Action Committee, established by a local law firm in November, paid for a billboard near the Lipan Street exit of the Crosstown Expressway. The billboard attacks Capelo, who is running for re-election in the 34th District. The PAC also paid for billboards with the same message on Interstate 37 at Corn Products Road and Texas Highway 44 near the...

A visiting judge from Kerrville(Texas) will preside over a local district court case that names local lawyer Rene Rodriguez and involves state Rep. Jaime Capelo - whose financial records were subpoenaed - according to court records made public Tuesday. Judge Karl Prohl has presided over hearings in Nueces County before. In April 2000, he led a court of inquiry in a matter involving former Corpus Christi Independent School District Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra and a few board members. After the court of inquiry, a local lawyer criticized Prohl. That lawyer was Rodriguez. Representing two of the trustees, Rodriguez criticized the judge's...

Opponent questions ad that mentions personal legal issues State Rep. Jaime Capelo said Sunday that he doesn't plan on offering his side of the story regarding allegations that he took a $100,000 kickback until he has to appear in court - regardless if the court appearance falls after the upcoming election or not. "I am confident in the legal system and I am also confident that I will be vindicated in these legal matters as the process moves forward," the Corpus Christi Democrat said late Sunday. "And I'm looking forward to that opportunity." On Sunday, Capelo's campaign organizers ran a...

South Korean [fmr. Pres. Kim Dae Jung] Cash Transfer to North Korea Designed to Dodge American CIA by Choi Jae-hyeok (jhchoi@chosun.com) The (S. Korean) National Intelligence Service worked to make sure its transfer of $200 million to North Korea would go undetected by U.S. intelligence authorities according to statements by the S. Korean NIS and banking officials obtained by the special prosecutor team investigating the cash-for-summit scandal. Because of the detail involved, this conflicts with the Pres. Kim Dae-jung government's claim in February that the cash was sent as part of the Hyundai Group's economic cooperation projects in North...

An Iraqi-born British billionaire told a French court yesterday how he had paid millions of pounds in kickbacks to French oil executives. Nadhmi Auchi, 65, reputedly Britain's seventh-richest man, is one of 37 company administrators and business partners accused of being involved in France's biggest postwar financial scandal in which the oil firm, now TotalFinaElf, allegedly paid out huge sums in bribes and backhanders to expand its empire. Mr Auchi gave himself up in London after two years resisting French demands for his arrest in connection with Elf's purchase in the 90s of interests in Spanish refineries owned by Cepsa,...