Australia's wheat exporter went on trial Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by nearly 1,000 shareholders demanding compensation for millions of dollars they say they lost through the company's kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former government in Iraq.
The Australian Wheat Board, the exclusive marketer of bulk wheat exports from Australia, admitted for the first time in court Wednesday that it knew payments it made to a trucking company were going to the Iraqi government.
In 2006, a government-commissioned inquiry found that the AWB paid more than $220 million in kickbacks to Saddam's government between 1999 and 2003 to secure lucrative wheat contracts.
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