Houston
Two Houston oilmen were formally charged this week with paying “secret kickbacks” to Saddam Hussein’s government in exchange for the right to sell Iraqi oil. The payments should have helped pay for food and medicine for ordinary Iraqis under the United Nations oil-for-food program, which operated from 1996 to 2003 to help Iraqis weather hardships caused by economic sanctions against the regime. But the kickbacks helped Saddam turn the program into a “cash cow masquerading as a humanitarian venture,” said John Klochan of the FBI’s office in New York, where the men, David Chalmers Jr. and Ludmil Dionissiev, were charged. Both pleaded not guilty.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'We simply haven't built enough new housing'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
'No contact': Family estrangement is seeing an uptick with younger generationsThe Explainer Young adults are setting firmer boundaries with parents, siblings and other relatives
-
8 award-winning restaurants to visit this fallIt's the season for dropping magazine restaurant and chef awards
