Fiat pays out to settle Iraq bribe claims

The Italian car manufacturer has agreed a $17.8m settlement in relation to claims that it gave Saddam Hussein’s Iraq kickbacks under the UN oil for food scheme. It was uncovered that three of Fiats subsidiaries paid over $4.3m to the Iraqi government between 2000 and 2003 supposedly dressed up as after sales service fees. Fiat has acknowledged that three of its subsidiaries made payments in order to obtain contracts to supply pump,gears and other industrial equipment.The Volcker Report into abuses of the found an alleged $1.8bn of illicit income from more than 2,000 companies. Daimler Chrysler and Volvo were also accused.