The Volker inquiry reported that Amina Naji Abu Zayyad, Galloways wife, had received a series of transfers totalling $120,000. These payments are additional to the ones discovered by the Coleman/Levin congressional hearings.
The revelation increases the pressure on the vocal anti-war politician, whom the report says was nicknamed "Abu Mariam" by the Iraqis, a reference to his anti-sanctions campaign, the Mariam Appeal.
The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow already faces a parliamentary ethics inquiry and possible criminal charges for making "false or misleading" statements during his celebrated confrontation with US Senators in May.
The new details of Mr Galloway's alleged involvement in the oil-for-food scandal were contained in a 620-page report issued at the end of an 18-month UN inquiry by a panel led by Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve.
In all, about half the 4,500 companies that bought oil or supplied humanitarian goods under the UN scheme are suspected of having paid illegal kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein government. But only one oil company and 26 humanitarian suppliers actually admitted doing so.
The Volcker report cited Iraqi Oil Ministry records showing that Mr Galloway received allocations of million of barrels of oil to support the Mariam Appeal. Allocations of more than 18 million barrels went to Mr Galloway directly or indirectly through his Jordanian friend Fawaz Zureikat, the report says. Mr Zureikat paid $434,000 to the Mariam Appeal.
The Volcker inquiry tracks additional payments to Ms Abu Zayyad from a British-Iraqi businessman and prominent supporter of the Conservative Party named Burhan Chalabi. The report says that Mr Chalabi received an allocation of four million barrels of oil from Iraq on December 17, 1999, for "Galloway's campaign".
Delta Services, Mr Chalabi's company, received $472,228 in commission payments on the allocation from the Fortum oil company. "Soon after each deposit, a series of payments totalling over $120,000 were transferred from the Delta Services bank account to the bank account of . . . Mr Galloway's wife," the report concludes.
Mr Chalabi also allegedly made two payments totalling over $150,000 to accounts apparently belonging to Mudhafar Amin, then Iraq's chargé d'affaires in London, Mr Chalabi could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Galloway told the UN panel that his wife denied that she had ever received $120,000 from Mr Chalabi or anyone else. Ms Abu Zayyad told the Senate committee she had never received "any proceeds of any oil deals".
|