$1B damages against AWB by N. American Wht Growers

[TOM4CWB]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/NATIONAL/North-American-wheat-farmers-to-sue-AWB/2006/06/30/1151174339140.html

North American wheat farmers to sue AWB
June 30, 2006 - 12:19AM

"US and Canadian wheat farmers are preparing a $1 billion damages claim against Australian wheat exporter AWB.

The farmers will claim they suffered lost income because AWB was paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, The Australian newspaper reports.

If it succeeds, the action would cripple AWB, a company mostly owned by Australian wheat farmers.

Lawyers for the farmers plan to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO), which covers bribery, kickbacks and extortion, and was passed by the US Congress in 1970 to eliminate organised crime.

AWB is accused of funnelling $290 million to Saddam's regime over four years.

Under the RICO law, any person who succeeds in establishing a claim can automatically receive three times their actual damages, plus costs.

The action will be taken on behalf of a handful of US and Canadian farmers, but thousands more could join the class action.

© 2006 AAP"

[TOM4CWB]

I see this on DTN;

Australia's AWB Says Will Defend Any US Court Action

"CANBERRA (Dow Jones) -- Australian wheat exporter AWB Ltd. Friday said it would "vigorously defend" any damages claim brought by U.S. and Canadian wheat growers over the company's sales to Iraq.

AWB spokesman Peter McBride was commenting on a media report that North American farmers will take legal action against the company claiming they suffered lost income because AWB was paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

Lawyers for the farmers plan to use the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which covers bribery, kickbacks and extortion, and was enacted in 1970 to eliminate organized crime, the Australian newspaper said in a front page report. It said the damages claim could total A$1 billion."

[malleefarmer]

Go for it there as guilty as hell
Allegations of more of the same in indonesia
ps australia is almost drought sticken as the US

[TOM4CWB]

Mallee;

I see this:

Revealed: how Downer waged war with US to protect Iraq wheat trade
Email Print Normal font Large font Richard Baker
July 3, 2006
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/revealed-how-downer-waged-war-with-us-to-protect-iraq-wheat-trade/2006/07/02/1151778811117.html#

"THE Howard Government used Australia's support for the US in Iraq as a bargaining chip to protect the country's multibillion-dollar wheat trade with Baghdad.

Documents seen by the Herald detail how Australia feared the US would muscle in on Australia's dominant trading position with Saddam Hussein's regime.

They show that more than six months before the outbreak of war, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, suggested that military support for the US in Iraq would benefit Australia's commercial position. Once war had broken out, he was concerned the US would use its battle deaths as justification for seizing Australia's wheat trade.

At a meeting in August 2002 in Mr Downer's Canberra office, the Prime Minister, John Howard, senior government officials and executives from the wheat exporter AWB discussed the outlook for Australia's sales.

The documents reveal an idea was floated at the meeting whereby Australia would provide military support for the US on the condition its wheat trade



was protected. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade record of conversation shows Mr Downer suggested Australian support for the US would benefit "Australia's commercial position in Iraq".

Before the March 2003 invasion, Australia tried desperately to strike a deal with the US. Documents show Mr Downer raised the wheat trade with the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, at least three times. He also discussed it with Mr Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage.

In one dispatch, a Foreign Affairs official reported Mr Downer telling Mr Powell words to the effect that the US could "forget Aussie support in future" if America flooded Iraq with wheat after the war.

Mr Downer stipulated that his request for Australia's Iraqi sales to be protected be formally recorded in the minutes of his meetings with Mr Powell. Senior Australian officials in Washington were instructed to press the issue at every opportunity.

Once the war began, the wheat issue was never far from the Government's mind.

On March 24, 2003, Mr Downer and AusAID officials met the then head of AWB, Andrew Lindberg, to discuss its impact on wheat sales. A record shows Mr Downer's "prime concern" was the US concluding that "its sacrifices on the battlefield entitled its farmers" to the Iraqi wheat market. "He was sure the US well understood that Australians would go 'feral' if the US was seen to steal our wheat market, though he felt it unlikely that we could avoid losing a portion of it," the Foreign Affairs document records the minister as saying."

Is this how "single desk" marketing works?

It is hard to believe the Howard administration didn't know about Sadam's kickbacks... with all this going on... isn't it?

[TOM4CWB]

US farmers seek millions in class suit against AWB
Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
July 11, 2006

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-farmers-seek-millions-in-class-suit-against-awb/2006/07/10/1152383678538.html


US WHEAT farmers are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from AWB as part of a class action accusing the wheat exporter of engaging in racketeering, money laundering, fraud and bribery.

A Kansas wheat farmer, Veryl Switzer, 78, is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit - filed in Washington at the weekend - which claims AWB's conduct in Iraq and other countries breached US laws and damaged the interests of up to 20,000 US farmers.

A United Nations investigation last year found AWB paid $290 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime to secure wheat contracts in Iraq. This year's Cole inquiry in Sydney has uncovered damming evidence of AWB's corruption of the UN oil-for-food scheme between 1999 and 2003 and attempts to cover it up.

But AWB's abuse of the UN food program and "bribery" of Iraqi officials are only part of the class action. The statement of claim accuses AWB of:

* Bribing officials in Yemen to secure a wheat contract in 1999.

* In 2000, bribing Pakistani officials for a contract to export wheat to Pakistan.

* In 2002 sabotaging the Indonesian wheat market to shut out US rivals by fraudulently manipulating and then ripping off the US Agriculture Department export credit program.

* Committing perjury and obstructing justice in an effort to cover up its corrupt Iraqi dealings.

The Australian resources giant BHP Billiton also features in the statement of claim, which accuses AWB of fraudulently inflating wheat contracts to recover $US8 million for a BHP-linked company, Tigris Petroleum.

The class action alleges AWB and its subsidiary, AWB USA, breached the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and seeks damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act.

"Certain AWB officials … intentionally and knowingly conspired to utilise illegal tactics such as wire fraud, bank fraud, bribery, money laundering and tortious interference with business opportunity in order to gain an unfair competitive advantage in certain wheat markets including, but not limited to, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Indonesia," the statement of claim says.

In describing AWB staff as "unfair advantage conspirators", lawyers for US wheat farmers will argue the wheat exporter's conduct excluded US wheat growers from certain markets.

"The … conspiracy was successful in achieving its unlawful ends. With assistance from certain conspiring individuals and organisations, [the] defendant were [sic] able to reap handsome monetary rewards."

Lawyers for the US farmers are demanding a jury trial and will argue for tens of millions of dollars in compensation and the application of racketeering law provisions which allow the tripling of any damages, and any appropriate "additional or alternative relief".

It is understood representatives from the Canadian wheat farmers' association are considering joining the class action.

A spokesman for AWB has previously said it would fight any "ill-conceived" suit against it.