French oil conglomerate Total in Iranian oil scheme
By Olivier Guitta
The French weekly L'Express just revealed that Swiss authorities have established Total's responsibility in an Iranian oil scheme. Indeed a $39 Million account at the Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch et Cie bank in Geneva was recently flagged out because of potential illegal transactions.
Investigators found out that Total through its Geneva Credit Suisse account was feeding this account between 1998 and 2003. The Siakal account has as beneficial owner Iranian Bijan Dadfar who has interestingly no oil connections but happen to be a close associate of the Rafsanjani family. This $39 million bribe landed Total the juicy contract of South Pars. Interestingly, Total is already up to its neck in the Oil for Food scandal and two of its leaders are currently being prosecuted in Paris.
Also no one should be surprised that Total has been lobbying very hard the French government for avoiding to sanction the Iranian regime. Business interests are huge when it comes to Iran since France is Iran's second largest trading partner.
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