When it comes to international bribery and illegal kickbacks, Australia’s inquiry of its state-sanctioned wheat exporter’s, AWB, sleazy dealings with Saddam Hussein-led Iraq is giving an all new meaning to the nation’s clever Down Under nickname. Like down-and-dirty and under the table.
Bribes and kickbacks. In its first three days of testimony in mid-January, lawyers for the government review, called the Cole Inquiry, have established that AWB paid $214 million in bribes and kickbacks to corrupt officials in the Hussein government to keep Aussie wheat exports flowing into Iraq under the United Nation’s Oil for Food Program between 1999 and 2003.
