The Paris Court of Appeal directed Total to pay a €750,000 [$826,000] fine. Vitol also received a €300,000 fine. (VK)
French oil giant Total has been convicted and fined in a retrial over corruption charges related to the UN’s Oil-for-Food programme.
The company had been among a number of firms and individuals accused of bribing Iraqi officials in exchange for contracts as part of the programme.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is thought to have pocketed billions of dollars in illegal revenues from abusing the scheme.
On July 8, 2013, a French criminal court acquitted 14 companies, including Total, Swiss trader Vitol, Renault Trucks, Schneider Electric and Legrand, and 18 individuals on corruption charges.
The Paris Court of Appeal directed Total to pay a €750,000 [$826,000] fine. Vitol also received a €300,000 fine.
The UN scheme was set up to ease the humanitarian consequences of an economic embargo imposed on Hussein’s government, and ran from 1996 to 2003.
