Oil-for-food scandal haunts United Nations

Informed Constituent (Albany, NY), The, Jan, 2005 by Melissa Bruno

Complicating the situation further is the discovery of an elaborate network front companies set up to cover Saddam's tracks. Many of the ghost firms have been dissolved or had hidden ownership, which is hampering the investigation. According to Mark Pieth, a Swiss lawyer working with Volcker, authorities in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein, have agreed to help in the investigation. Records in the Swiss banks should provide a way of finding who profited from the transactions of front companies.

Volcker's final report is due in the summer of 2005 and will further illuminate the methods Saddam Hussein used to cheat his own people out of vital aid as well as deceive the U.N. and the rest of the world as to what his motives truly were.