Washington:
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort by Iraq to revive a lawsuit against dozens of companies for allegedly conspiring with former leader Saddam Hussein's government to subvert the UN oil-for-food program and deprive Iraqi citizens of humanitarian aid.
The high court left intact a September 2014 ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals that Iraq's current government could not recoup damages under a US anti-racketeering law over Hussein's effort to defraud the UN program. Hussein was removed from power during a 2003 US-led invasion and executed in 2006.
More than 80 companies, subsidiaries and affiliates were named as defendants in the 2008 lawsuit over the $64.2 billion oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003 and was designed to help ordinary Iraqis hurt by international economic sanctions against Hussein's government.
Among the defendants were the French bank BNP Paribas SA (BNPP.PA), which oversaw a U.N. escrow account for the program; Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd (ABBN.VX); U.S. oil company US oil company Chevron Corp (CVX.N); British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L) and German electronics company Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE)
A scathing 2005 UN report on the oil-for-food program, issued by a panel led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, linked oil surcharges to contracts of 139 companies and humanitarian kickbacks to contracts of 2,253 companies.
The case is Iraq v. ABB AG et al, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-1074.
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