US Oil Exec Jailed For Iraq Bribes

A US oil executive has been jailed for two years for paying bribes worth millions of dollars to the government of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. David Chalmers, the head of Bayoil Inc, paid bribes from 2000 to 2003 to gain access to Iraqi crude oil being sold under the UN oil-for-food programme.

The $60bn (£32bn) UN programme allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of UN sanctions. A number of people have been convicted of abuses linked to the UN initiative.

Last year, Benon Sevan, the former director of the scheme set up because of international sanctions imposed on Iraq after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, was charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit fraud.