Former Mabey & Johnson execs jailed for financing Saddam's gov't

Two former directors and a sales manager of British engineering firm Mabey & Johnson Ltd were sentenced yesterday for providing kickbacks to the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein.

A release from the United Kingdom's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) stated that Charles Forsyth, David Mabey and Richard Gledhill inflated the contract price for the supply of steel bridges and disguised illegal payments that were channelled through Jordanian banks.

On 10 February 2011, a Southwark Crown Court jury found Charles Forsyth and David Mabey guilty of making the illegal payments to Iraq during 2001-02 in breach of United Nations sanctions. Gledhill, who was sales manager for contracts in Iraq, pleaded guilty to sanctions offences at an earlier hearing and gave evidence for the prosecution.

Mabey & Johnson Ltd, of Twyford, Berkshire, had entered into a contract under the UN Oil-For-Food Programme to supply 13 steel modular bridges. The illegal payments of more than €420,000 that secured the contract with the Iraqi government represented 10 per cent of the total contract value.

More scandal

The Iraq scandal is not the only one to hit Mabey and Johnson, as Contractor General Greg Christie stated in a 2009 report that Jamaican Member of Parliament Joseph Hibbert was in breach of government regulations and Ministry of Transport and Works staff orders when he accepted payments from the firm between 1993 and 2003.

Christie's report has recommended that Hibbert, who resigned his post as a junior minister in the Golding administration, be charged for corruption, perjury and for breaching the Contractor General's Act.

Hibbert, who remains a member of the House of Representatives, has maintained his innocence in the matter.