Documents from an 18-month investigation into corruption in the UN oil-for-food program will be available indefinitely to governments trying to prosecute alleged wrongdoers under an agreement announced Thursday.
The agreement between investigators and the United Nations will leave the voluminous archive compiled during the probe with investigators for three more months until March 31, when all documents will be turned over to the United Nations.
The Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, accused more than 2,200 companies from about 40 countries of colluding with Saddam Hussein’s regime to bilk the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq of $1.8 billion. The committee said 11 governments have so far sought information.
