Companies in 'oil-for-food scam'

The BBC has found evidence of corruption by companies around the world doing business with Iraq while it was under the sanctions regime.
Our investigation has found that many businesses were willing to pay Saddam Hussein's government illicit surcharges on oil-for-food contracts.

These abuses were found to have been widely known about at the time.

The oil-for-food programme was a scheme administered by the UN allowing Iraq to export oil despite the sanctions.

The revenue went into accounts controlled by the UN and was supposed to be spent on food and medicines to improve living conditions in Iraq.

The scheme ran for seven years, ending with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.

UN officials have been accused of either turning a blind eye to abuses, or in some cases of being corrupt themselves.

It has been described as the biggest financial scandal in history.

According to US senate investigators, Saddam Hussein embezzled $21bn by evading UN sanctions over a period of years.

That figure released earlier this week is double previous estimates.

Attention has focused on the kickbacks the former Iraqi leader's officials allegedly extracted from foreign companies doing business under the UN-administered oil for food programme.