Iraqi Government Sued for $1BN

Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, an Italian bank, is suing the Iraqi government for $1BN.

The case, that is being heard in Fulton County Superior Court, is a bid to recover more than $1BN that the bank lent to Saddam Hussein's regime 15 years ago.

The loans originated in the Atlanta office of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, and were the centre of the "Iraqgate" scandal; in which critics blamed the first Bush administration with arming Saddam's government in the late 1980s.

Although the Bush administration was exonerated of any wrongdoing, many still speculate over how the bank lent the Iraqis the money without the knowledge of their superiors in Rome or any high-ranking American officials.

The Justice Department accused the manager of the bank's Atlanta office, Christopher Drogoul, of organising illicit loans and defrauding the bank and the US government. A federal grand jury indicted Drogoul in 1991, along with some of his subordinates, a government owned Iraqi bank and five Iraqi officials.

Drogoul subsequently "copped a plea", and was sentenced to 37 months in prison.

The current case names as defendants the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Iraq, the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Iraq and the Central Bank of Iraq.

It seems a hell of a cheek to sue the current government of Iraq, who had no responsibility for loans granted to the previous administration.