Iraq drives Daimler to suspensions

"US-GERMAN car maker DaimlerChrysler has suspended at least six of its high-ranking managers after an internal investigation into claims the company paid kickbacks for contracts under the UN's oil-for-food program in Iraq.

Company sources said up to 10 managers had been put on leave. Most of them work in the overseas division.

The suspensions mark one of the first public steps undertaken by one of the several thousand companies accused of taking part in the scandal.

A report by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, alleged that companies including Daimler, Siemens, Volvo and the UK's Weir Group had made illicit payments to Saddam Hussein's regime. It also criticised France's BNP and several politicians and businessmen in countries from France and Britain to India and Russia.

Daimler itself refused to comment about whether any managers had been suspended but said its investigations were under way."
The Australian