George Galloway: In Trouble?

Way back when Gorgeous George verbally beat up that Senate Committee I said that I didn’t think that was the end of it. While in our Parliamentary system such pyrotechnics would have been the end of the matter, the US system didn’t go for such flourishes but it did grind through the evidence. As the Telegraph (and as we know they’re already in the courts with him so perhaps they report this with more glee than is normal) points out today:

The report, compiled by Republican and Democratic staff, contains detailed information gleaned from Iraqi archives and bank accounts in Britain and Jordan.

The investigators concluded that Mr Galloway knew about the payments and that "through his wife was personally enriched" by them. They say that he "knowingly made false or misleading statements under oath before [a Senate] sub-committee".

Mr Galloway appeared before senators five months ago and assailed them for suggesting that he had a business relationship with Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. He told the chairman, Sen Norm Coleman: "You have nothing on me, senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq."

Later he added: "What counts is not the names on the paper; what counts is where's the money, senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? The answer to that is nobody. And if you had anybody who ever paid me a penny, you would have produced them today."

The report includes bank records showing a paper trail from Saddam's ministries to Mrs Galloway. It states that the Iraqis handed several lucrative oil-for-food contracts to the Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zureikat, an old friend of the Galloways. A month later, on Aug 3, 2000, Mr Zureikat allegedly paid $150,000 minus a bank commission of $20 from his Citibank account number 500190207 into Mrs Galloway's account at the Arab Bank in Amman.

The senate team also says that a $15,666 payment had been made on the same date to a Bank of Scotland account belonging to Mr Galloway's spokesman, Ron McKay. Last night Mr McKay said he had no recollection of the alleged payment.

Ooops! And that Zureikat, what a piker, not paying the bank commissions himself! George’s answer?

Asked whether Mr Zureikat had transferred oil profits to his account, he said: "No". Asked whether his wife or his associates, including Mr McKay, had received any oil profits, Mr Galloway said: "I have no knowledge of Mr Zureikat's business affairs."

Well, well, this will be interesting won’t it? A case for perjury in the US? Or were his answers sufficiently crafted?