DaimlerChrysler has suspended at least six senior managers following an internal investigation into allegations that the company paid kickbacks for contracts under the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme in Iraq, reports the Financial Times.
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The FT report said that up to ten managers had been put on leave and that most of them work in the company’s overseas division.
DaimlerChrysler has also passed information to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice in the US, both of whom are investigating the scandal.
The allegations involving DaimlerChrysler surround the sale of Mercedes trucks and spare parts to the Iraqi government under the auspices of the oil-for-food programme under which Iraq was allowed to use the money to purchase certain goods as well as food.
The FT said that the Volcker report claimed Wolfgang Denk, an area manager at DaimlerChrysler, agreed in 2001 to pay a DM13,000 kickback on a contract to sell an armoured van to Iraq and submitted an inflated contract price to the UN.
It has been suggested that such corruption was widespread under the UN programme and that as many as 2,000 companies may be involved in similar corruptive practices that raised US$1.8bn in illicit revenues.
The FT added that top executives for AWB, the Australian wheat exporter, were on Thursday accused of paying bribes to the former Iraqi regime.
