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| French Company Thales Denies Rampant Corruption, Selling Chemical Weapons to Saddam |
| 2005-09-26 |
| French defense-electronics group Thales SA on Monday denied allegations from a fired company executive that it paid out millions of dollars in bribes and sold chemical weapons to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. "The Thales Group formally denies accusations of corruption in France and internationally, lodged against it by a former manager at THEC," the company said in a statement. Michel Josserand, former chief executive of Thales Engineering and Consulting, or THEC, said in an interview with newspaper Le Monde that that the paying of bribes by Thales was widespread - in violation of French law and international conventions. "I estimate that Thales must pay out between 1 percent and 2 percent of its global revenue in illegal commissions," he said. Thales posted revenue of 10.3 billion euros ($12.5 billion) for 2004. He also said Thales had "sidestepped the (U.N.) Oil for Food Program and delivered chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein's government." Josserand has told police investigating Thales that the company took part in the construction of an Iraqi chemical-weapons plant disguised as a factory that made baby's milk powder, Le Monde reported. Thales spokesman Christophe Robin said the company denied "categorically and totally" the allegations concerning Iraq. "We never broke the embargo," Robin said in a telephone interview. "Thales does not produce chemical weapons. Thales completely denies these unfounded and dishonest allegations." Paris prosecutors are investigating allegations of corruption at Thales after irregularities surfaced in the company's bid to build a light railway in the southern French city of Nice. Josserand, whose THEC division won the contract, was fired by Thales and placed under formal investigation in May after the group filed a criminal complaint against its former employee. "The group would like to point out that these allegations have been made by a former manager of this subsidiary, who was dismissed by the group for irregularities committed as part of a contract for the Nice tramway," the Thales statement said. "Furthermore, the group itself lodged a complaint regarding corruption during this project." In his interview, however, Josserand described himself as a scapegoat now living in fear of his life. He said he had informed police about bribes paid out for contracts in Greece, Argentina, Asia and elsewhere in France - often via several foreign intermediaries such as construction companies. "Having said that, Thales was only following the practices of the major U.S. companies," he said. Thales had little choice but to pay bribes if it did not want to be excluded from markets, he also said. "In Russia, in a development aid deal, we were threatened with a significant increase in sales tax," he said. "In Cameroon, for a transport contract, we had a tax investigation because we didn't pay enough." |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #1 "French defense-electronics group Thales SA on Monday denied allegations from a fired company executive that it paid out millions of dollars in bribes" Bribes are a way of life in France. Before Chirac let Coca-Cola put vending machines in Paris, hurting the waiters' tips on overpriced fountain drinks, he demanded his bribe money put into the Widows and Orphans Fund. While the executives considered it a relatively reasonable price to do business there, I believe this is one of the questionable funds in the UN Oil-for-Food scandal. Vindication for 'W'? |
| Posted by: Danielle 2005-09-26 16:42 |