Court Rejects 'Oil-for-Food' Lawsuit

By John Lee.

The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by Iraq to revive a lawsuit against companies for allegedly conspiring with Saddam Hussein's government to subvert the United Nations oil-for-food program.

According to the Reuters report, more than 80 companies and other entities were named as defendants in the 2008 lawsuit over the $64.2 billion program, which ran from 1996 to 2003.

Among the defendants were the French bank BNP Paribas, which oversaw a U.N. escrow account for the program; Swiss engineering company ABB; US oil company Chevron; British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline; and German electronics company Siemens.

(Source: Reuters)