Swiss Firms Admit to Paying Kickbacks for Iraqi Oil

GENEVA - A key investigator says oil trading firms based in Switzerland paid kickbacks to win contracts under the U-N's oil-for-food program in Iraq.
The investigator, Swiss criminal lawyer Mark Pieth, said that the total amount of bribes paid by companies around the world could be as high as two-point-five (b) billion dollars.
The man says it will be up to national authorities to carry out any legal proceedings against firms which paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.
Swiss authorities have already fined one Geneva-based company for paying kickbacks under the program, which ran until 2003.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press.