Report: Siemens Probed On Food-for-oil

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Electronics giant Siemens is being investigated on suspicion of corruption in connection with the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, a report said. State prosecutors in Nuremberg, Germany, are probing whether Siemens "contravened the law on foreign trade," a prosecutor told the German edition of the Financial Times. Prosecutors are investigating alleges Siemens paid "a six-figure sum" as a bribe to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime to secure energy and medical-equipment contracts in the food-for-oil program, the newspaper said. The program, which ran from late 1996 to 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, was intended to alleviate the effects of sanctions on the civilian population by letting Iraq sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine and other humanitarian needs. A U.N. investigation in 2005 found more than 2,000 companies from 60 countries had bribed the Iraqi government to take part in the program.