Drug firms probed over Iraq cash

Source: BBC News

GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca have been asked to hand over papers as part of a probe into bribes allegedly paid to Saddam Hussein's former Iraq regime.

The Serious Fraud Office is examining allegations of bribes paid to secure lucrative contracts in breach of Iraq's 1996 to 2003 oil-for-food programme.

The programme, established in the wake of UN sanctions, allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy humanitarian provisions.
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A third company, Eli Lilly, has also said that it will hand over documents.



Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7164677.stm

As if fraud were not serious enough offense by itself. :eyes:

big time stuff : http://www.sfo.gov.uk/international/international.asp

Now it makes sense.

SFO defends BAE fraud probe move http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6444205.stm
The fact they dropped that one "without political pressure" is of course a complete load of old bollocks : English slang expression but I'm sure you'll get the drift. Anyway - since that occured dropping another one would give rise to a major credibility problem for the SFO.

It's interesting that the investigation is over here. I have to assume that your side wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. The mere fact its been published is probably sufficient to spook the drug companies. Add to that the threat of English courts having jurisdiction and spooked probably becomes an understatement.

"George Herbert Walker Bush sat on the Lilly Board of Directors during the late 1970s, appointed by the father of Bush Sr's. vice presidential candidate, Dan Quayle, who owned controlling interest in the corporation. Bush Sr. was personally ordered by the Supreme Court to stop lobbying the IRS on behalf of Lilly for tax breaks in 1982. The Bush family has been substantially invested in Eli Lilly stock for years.

White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels is a former Lilly executive. Disgraced Enron CEO Kenneth Lay also sat on the Lilly Board of Directors, until he was forced to resign in disgrace in December of 2001 after his company exploded in a blizzard of fraud and deceit. During the 2002 election cycle, Eli Lilly gave more campaign money - $1.6 million - than any other pharmaceutical corporation, 79% of which went to Republican candidates. The Lilly amendment that found its way into the Homeland Security bill in the immediate aftermath of that election can be seen for what it is: a payoff."

<http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/09/10/washington_under_the_pharma_lilly.htm>

ALWAYS end up back at Bushco...

:grr: