his Luxembourg-based holding company, General Mediterranean Holdings
SA, or possibly through a controlled subsidiary, Cipaf International SA of
Panama, Auchi is the largest shareholder in the French banking
conglomerate BNP Paribas.
His role in the international arms trade, and as a major commercial force in
BNP Paribas, led to BNP Paribas becoming the sole bank administering the
UN Oil-for-Food program. (The Saddam regime was given sole discretion
over the selection of the bank to administer the Oil-for-Food program, and
reportedly the only bank it even considered for the program was Auchi’s
BNP Paribas). Clearly, his bank was an enormous beneficiary through fees
and other services from the program, and there is substantial information
from credible sources that Auchi and the Bank acted as middle parties on
the “oil against vouchers” scams that siphoned off a large portion of the $10
billion estimated to be illegally taken under the Oil-for-Food Program, which
is currently under investigation by Congress and by a special panel created
by Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary-General. Auchi’s financial empire
includes the cellular telephone systems of Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan,
and most recently Iraq. His ability to operate supra-nationally has generally
hindered attempts at prosecution, but he was recently extradited to France
for his role in the Elf-Aquitaine scandal, was found guilty and given a 15-
year (suspended) sentence.
His persistent role in Iraq weapons purchases set off instant alarms in IATT
when it was discovered that he had managed to manipulate the U.S.- and
British-sponsored cellular telephone tender under the auspices of the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) by having nominal or beneficial
ownership of a major part of the equity in two of the winning licenses, and
through a complex arrangement, a controlling interest in all three licenses.
The investigation which underlay this report was triggered by universal
complaints that the tender process had been rigged and that the process
lacked transparency.
The effort to subvert and suborn the cellular telephone tender process in
Iraq reflected world-class skills in corporate and financial manipulation: Its
audacity, its meticulous attention to carefully tailored political needs, its
placement seemingly beyond any governing legal frameworks, and its
scheduled disappearance in the train of the CPA on July 1, 2004 into three
unsupervised Iraqi institutional entities all reflect the hand of a master
manipulator. Each of the licenses has a defensible rationale for its award
OFFICIAL USE
ONLY
WARNING: This document is the property of the Department of Defense
Inspector General, International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate
and is on loan to your agency. Contents may not be disclosed to any party
under investigation nor may this document be distributed outside the receiving
agency without the specific authorization of the Director, International
Armament and Technology Trade.
