AWB Limited
AWB Limited is a privately owned company that is the exclusive manager and marketer of all Australian bulk wheat exports. (AWB is the acronym derived from the pre-privatisiation name of the Australian Wheat Board).
Contents
Oil for Food, Lobbyists, and Corporate Profits
Prior to the October 2005 release of Paul Volcker's report on violations of the United Nations' Iraq oil-for-food program, the Australian wheat exporter AWB Limited hired the Washington DC lobbying firm The Cohen Group, which is headed by former U.S. defense secretary William S. Cohen. AWB paid approximately $A300 million in trucking fees on its wheat contracts to a Jordanian company, Alia, which owns no trucks. The funds were funnelled to Saddam Hussein's government, according to information given to an Australian government-appointed Royal Commission.
Last week, AWB Middle East Marketing Manager Chris Whitwell mentioned The Cohen Group when asked about diary entries related to "develop[ing] a communications strategy." Whitwell said "Chalabi - link to Alia" referred to Ahmed Chalabi, as "he and Alia have some issues." Stanley McDermott, a partner in the law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, which has a "strategic alliance" with The Cohen Group, has also advised AWB. [1]
Other SourceWatch resources
Contact details
AWB Limited
380 La Trobe Street
Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia
Phone: 61 3 9209 2000
Fax: 61 3 9670 2782
Web: http://www.awb.com.au
External links
- Richard Baker, "Lobbyists hired by AWB", Sydney Morning Herald, February 22 2006.
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