The Iraqi government sued dozens of companies, including oil giant Chevron, for more than $10 billion (5 billion pounds) on Monday, saying they paid kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
Bribes
Iraq sues Chevron over kickbacks
Corporate Europe must improve compliance
The tough enforcement climate that European companies now face is nothing new in the US. It has been 30 years since its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act made the payment of foreign bribes illegal (compared with less than nine for Europe). To be sure, more than a few global companies headquartered in Europe maintain sophisticated processes to support compliance, often as a result of past regulatory disputes. Akzo-Nobel and Shell are two examples.
Financial Times: US to probe Nigeria oil industry payments
US anti-bribery investigators are targeting a former Halliburton subsidiary over its work on a key Royal Dutch Shell project in Nigeria, widening a corruption probe into the country's troubled oil industry.