Novo Nordisk Gets Subpoena in U.N. Probe

The Associated Press
February 20, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/20/AR2006022000586.html

The Associated Press
Monday, February 20, 2006; 12:41 PM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Danish pharmaceutical Novo Nordisk A/S has received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordering it to provide documents relating to the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, the company said Monday.
Novo Nordisk will comply with the subpoena and fully cooperate with the SEC's investigation, the company said in a statement.
Also Monday, Swiss prosecutors said they have begun investigating a fifth party in connection with kickbacks and corruption during the United Nations' oil-for-food program in Iraq, authorities said Monday.
The investigation is focusing on alleged violations of Switzerland's earlier embargo on trade with Iraq, as well as money laundering and bribery of foreign officials, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Further inquiries may yet be opened on the basis of information from a U.N.-backed investigation on alleged oil-for-food corruption that was concluded in October, the prosecutor's office said.
Prosecutors did not disclose the identity of the people or companies under investigation.
About 40 Swiss companies were named in the U.N. probe, including engineering firm ABB and pharmaceutical giants Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG, as well as commodity traders Glencore, Vitol and Marc Rich Group.
Novo Nordisk was among more than 2,000 companies and individuals accused in a U.N. report in October of paying kickbacks to Iraqi officials to secure contracts under the oil-for-food program during Saddam Hussein's regime. The company has denied any wrongdoing.
The program was launched in 1996 to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Saddam's regime to sell oil, provided the proceeds went primarily to buy humanitarian goods and pay war reparations.
Saddam allegedly sought to curry favor by giving former government officials, journalists and others vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.
Novo Nordisk said its sales of pharmaceutical products, primarily insulin, to Iraq under the program amounted to approximately 310 million kroner ($48 million).
Novo Nordisk has 22,000 workers in 79 countries. Its shares are listed in Copenhagen and London and its American depository receipts are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.