Total Indicted For Alleged Corruption in Iraq
Geraldine Amiel
04/06/2010
Wall Street Journal
Original Source: – HYPERLINK http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2010/0302/Bluster-at-UN-Human-Rights-Council-as-US-and-Iran-trade-barbs http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303493904575167310228524720.html

A French judge has charged http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=TOT Total SA with bribery in connection with the oil major's involvement in the United Nations' Oil-for-Food program in Iraq during the late 1990s and early 2000s, company lawyer Jean Veil said Tuesday, confirming a statement in the company's annual report.
Total was charged Feb. 27 for potential corruption, Mr. Veil said. The case was launched in 2002 but the initial investigative judge never indicted the company itself.
In its annual report for 2009, Total said some of its employees--including its current chief executive, Christophe de Margerie, who at the time was Total's head for exploration and production--and former employees had been indicted under suspicion of bribery. Mr. de Margerie had been indicted in 2006.
In 2007 the case was transferred to the Paris Prosecutor's office, which at the end of last year recommended dismissing all charges, Total said in its annual report for 2009.
But a new judge, who took over the case at the start of 2010, decided against all odds to start a formal investigation of Total on bribery charges, even though he was expected to close the case following the public prosecution office's advice, Mr. Veil said.
The charges come eight years after the start of the initial investigation without any new evidence being added to the affair, the company said in its report.
Total said it believes that its activities related to the Oil-for-Food program have been in compliance with this program, as organized by the U.N. in 1996. The Volker report released by the independent investigating committee set up by the U.N. had discarded any bribery grievance within the framework of the Oil-for-Food program.
The Volker report, informally named for chairman of the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee Paul Volker, documented corruption within the Oil-for-Food program.
Corrections & Amplifications:
Total's Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie was indicted in 2006. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that no Total managers had previously been indicted.