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DJ Australia Sold Saddam's Gold To Cover Wheat Sales -Report(Comtex Finance Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)CANBERRA, Jan 24, 2006 (Dow Jones Commodities News Select via Comtex) --In 1991, Charles Stott, the head of international sales and marketing for monopoly wheat exporter the Australian Wheat Board, negotiated the physical payment of A$200 million of gold owned by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to the Australian government against future deliveries of wheat, according to a report to be republished in Wednesday's edition of The Bulletin weekly magazine. Stott's brief from the Australian government after the first Gulf War was to resume the wheat trade with Iraq, but he needed to get around the problem of the Bank for International Settlements, a bank for central banks, freezing Iraq's global assets, the report said. The Iraqis suggested gold bullion as a method payment, the report said. The decision to complete the deal rested with the then Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans, who sought advice from Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bernie Fraser, who dispatched an RBA assistant governor to help Stott, the report said. Ultimately, the 10 metric tons of bullion was transported by road to Amman from Baghdad, passing through airports in London and Hong Kong before being reprocessed at Perth Mint and sold off in small bars and coins, the report said. According to the report, Stott, now a general manager at monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd. (AWB.AU), may be one person who might be able to prove the Australian government's complicity in AWB paying kickbacks of US$221.7 million payments to Saddam's deposed regime during the operation of the U.N. oil-for-food program, which was disbanded in 2003. The Australian government has constituted a commission of inquiry, which is holding hearings ahead of a report deadline March 31 on whether AWB breached Australian law in paying the kickbacks to Saddam's regime. In a report issued Oct. 27, 2005, on the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, had said AWB paid US$221.7 million to Jordan-based Alia Transportation to transport wheat through Iraq, but the funds were channeled to Saddam Hussein's regime. Peter McBride, a spokesman for AWB, said he hasn't seen the article so he can't comment on it. Stott hasn't appeared yet before the current inquiry. The Bulletin first published the report in March 2003. -By Ray Brindal, Dow Jones Newswires; 612 6208 0902; [email protected] -Edited by Ryan Woo (END) Dow Jones Newswires 01-24-06 0321ET |