U.S. food suppliers to Iraq being probed
U.S. investigators in Washington are looking into possible fraud involving kickbacks paid by major food companies supplying U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
The U.S. Justice Department and the Defense Department are looking into a Kuwaiti firm called Public Warehousing Co., which is the clearing house for such U.S. firms as ConAgra Foods Inc., Perdue Farms Inc., Sara Lee Corp., and others, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Among records seen by the newspaper was one indicating Sara Lee paid 5 percent of the purchase price back to Public Warehousing for meat and bakery orders to feed U.S. troops.
The inquiry is also trying to determine if the food companies set excessively high prices when they sold their goods to Public Warehousing and whether that company kept refunds it received from the suppliers, the Journal said.
Public Warehousing receives more than $1 billion annually for Iraq food services and has denied any wrongdoing, the report said. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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