AWB settles on payment for bribery charge

Australia's AWB wheat firm has agreed to pay A$39.5 million (US$35.6 million) to settle a class action for bribing the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to secure lucrative deals.

AWB will make the payment, including interest and costs, to more than 1,000 shareholders and farmers who claimed the scandal cost them US$100 million in losses.

The firm paid kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime in order to secure billions of dollars in grain deals with Iraq between 1999 and 2003 under a UN oil-for-food programme. Iraq's new government suspended business with AWB in 2006 after the exporter's role in the scandal surrounding abuse of the programme was confirmed by an official inquiry.

AWB chairman Peter Polson said the settlement, which is subject to court approval, is commercially acceptable.

The UN oil-for-food programme ended in 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. A key allegation was that AWB failed to meet disclosure obligations to the market about the payments, which were disguised as fees to a Jordanian company.