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From news.scotsman.com.

GEORGE Galloway's attempts to clear his name over the oil-for-food scandal suffered another setback yesterday when his spokesman confirmed that he had received payments from a businessman identified as a beneficiary of the scheme.

Ron McKay said he had received $15,666 from Fawaz Zureikat, an associate of Mr Galloway, in August 2000.

Mr McKay had previously questioned the allegation, levelled against him by US investigators, telling one newspaper that the payment did not "ring any bells".

The former journalist has acted as a spokesman for Mr Galloway throughout the row, during which time the Respect MP has been accused by a US senate committee of benefiting financially from the scheme set up to let Saddam Hussein sell oil to buy food and medicine in spite of the sanctions imposed against his regime in Iraq.

Yesterday Mr McKay said he had now checked his bank statements and was able to confirm he had received a payment from Mr Zureikat and $15,666 had been transferred into his personal account in August 2000.

He said the payment went into a personal account by mistake and that it was intended to be sent to a business account, into which it was later moved.

"I've had many business dealings with Fawaz Zureikat over the years. He was a director of a company that we were in together," he said.