AWB Loses Battle To Conceal Documents

September 19, 2006: The AWB will be forced to hand over a large amount of material after the Federal Court ruled it would lose legal privilege over more than 300 documents.

AWB had previously sought to conceal the documents sought by Commissioner Terence Cole QC under the premise they contained legal advice. The 900 documents in question were to be used by the Commissioner in his inquiry in to alleged kickbacks paid by the AWB to the Saddam Hussein regime.

The ruling given by Justice Neil Young came because AWB had used legal advice to declare its innocence to the United Nations and Australian Government. Justice Young stated that client – lawyer communication facilitating a crime should not be protected.

Ten of the documents to be released relate to an agreed payment of $US2 million in compensation made in August 2002 for what the Iraqi’s claimed was a contaminated shipment. Due to the US invasion of Iraq and consequent fall Hussein’s regime, this payment was never made.

In regards to this transaction Justice Young said it “was deliberately and dishonestly structured by AWB and IGB so as to misrepresent the true nature and purpose of the trucking fees and to work a trickery on the United Nations.”

The documents to be released also include interviews with AWB staff over their knowledge of payments made to a Jordanian trucking company known as Alia. The company was later found by a UN investigation to be a front for Saddam’s regime.

The new evidence these documents will bring to the already eight month long inquiry look set to delay its final report date of September 29, possibly until early November. The documents released by the Federal Court ruling are unlikely to be made public before the hearing resumes.

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