 George Galloway's attempts to clear his name over the oil-for-food scandal suffered another setback yesterday when his spokesman confirmed that he had received payments from a businessman identified as a beneficiary of the scheme. Ron McKay said he had received $15,666 from Fawaz Zureikat, an associate of Mr Galloway, in August 2000. | Nice knife you have sticking out of your back there, George. |
Mr McKay had previously questioned the allegation, levelled against him by US investigators, telling one newspaper that the payment did not "ring any bells". The former journalist has acted as a spokesman for Mr Galloway throughout the [investigation]. Earlier this week Mr Galloway was also named as a political beneficiary of the scheme by the independent committee investigating the scandal for the UN. The committee found that Mr Galloway and Mr Zureikat had between them been allocated 18 million barrels of oil. Mr Galloway has denied profiting from the scheme. Among the many accusations levelled by the independent inquiry committee led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker was that Mr Zureikat had paid $120,000 into Mr Galloway's wife's account in 2000. It was also alleged that the Mariam Appeal, which Mr Galloway chaired, received at least $446,000 in connection with several allocations granted under the oil-for-food programme. Yesterday Mr McKay said he had now checked his bank statements and was able to confirm he had received a payment from Mr Zureikat and $15,666 had been transferred into his personal account in August 2000. | "Oh, that bank transfer. I used to be a journalist. I'm not really good with numbers, you know." |
He said the payment went into a personal account by mistake and that it was intended to be sent to a business account, into which it was later moved. "I've had many midnight trysts business dealings with Fawaz Zureikat over the years. He was a director of a company that we were in together," he said. "The payment was nothing to do with oil. I have not benefited from it. It was later channelled to Switzerland where it should have gone." And he said that his confirmation of the payment should not be seen as in any way corroborating the claims made against Mr Galloway. "I'm not going to be used as a stick to beat George Galloway with," he said. | "But I'll happily throw him under the bus." |
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