Segons l'edició electrònica del Times de Londres, les investigacions se centren en BNP-Paribas, la banca francesa a la qual l'ONU va concedir l'administració del programa Petroli per Aliments.
More than $40 billion (£22 billion) of Iraqi oil money passed through the bank’s New York branch in the six years before the war. The contract was originally handled by BNP bank before it merged with Paribas, another French bank, in 2000.
El rol de BNP-Paribas ha sortit fa poc a la llum.
Last week, investigators for the Manhattan district attorney were in London making inquiries. The district attorney has launched a criminal investigation into alleged “improper banking practices” at BNP Paribas over the oil-for-food accounts.
The bank was responsible for issuing “letters of credit” to guarantee payments by companies, governments and individuals trading with Iraq through the UN scheme. It also converted the money between different currencies and invested the deposits which funded the oil-for-food deals.
The size of the funds flowing through the bank would potentially have made the contract extremely profitable and the UN would have been one of the bank’s biggest customers, according to accountants.
Les investigacions se centren en saber qui estava al darrera de tot plegat.
By 2000 the Iraqis had become so concerned that they asked the UN for the money to be split among several banks, but the organisation vetoed the plan. Investigators are now trying to determine if BNP Paribas acted improperly or whether political pressure was brought within the UN to ensure that it kept the contract.
Sobre aquest tema, BARCEPUNDIT es pregunta: el diner desviat per Saddam del Programa Petroli per Aliments va anar a parar, si més no en part, a Al Qaeda? Procedia d'aquí el múscul financer d'Ossama bin Laden des de 1998?. Es el tema de l'últim article de Claudia Rosett, la perio0dista que més i millor ha investigat aquest escàndol.
