Italian auto company Fiat Group agreed to pay $7 million in fines to settle U.S. Justice Department corruption charges that its subsidiaries bribed Iraqi officials in exchange for contracts funded by the United Nations. In total, the three Fiat subsidiaries paid $4.4 billion in bribes for contracts under the U.N. oil-for-food program, according to court documents in Washington. The subsidiaries—Iveco, CNH Italia, and CNH France—sought contracts between 2000 and 2002 to provide Iraqi officials with industrial pumps, gears, and other equipment. As part of the scheme, the Fiat subsidiaries inflated the cost of the U.N.-funded contracts by 10 percent, then used the money to pay the Iraqi officials, the court documents showed. The Justice Department said it has collected more than $24 million in fines from cases linked to oil-for-food contracts.
