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Johannesburg (AFP) Dec 26, 2010 Police sought Sunday to confirm that a man found dead in his hotel was a South African accused of paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein during Iraq's graft-plagued oil-for-food programme. The general manager of the Quatermain Hotel in the Johannesburg business district of Sandton said Sandi Majali, the head of an oil company that allegedly bribed Hussein's regime to gain access to Iraqi crude, was found dead in his room early Sunday. "Mr Majali stayed with us last night and he unfortunately passed away this morning," Rosie Chilewitz told AFP. "He was in his hotel room and he unfortunately passed away." Police spokesman Lungelo Dlamini confirmed the incident but said the body had not been formally identified. "I can confirm there was a man found dead in a Sandton hotel. We have opened an inquest," Dlamini told AFP. "He was found dead in his hotel bed," he added. A 2005 United Nations report on corruption in the oil-for-food programme, which allowed sanction-starved Iraq to sell its crude in return for food and medicine, said Majali had agreed to pay kickbacks to the Hussein regime in return for oil contracts. According to the report, Hussein's government ultimately received 228.8 million dollars in illicit income from the payment of such "surcharges" by Majali and others. Majali was never prosecuted for his alleged role in the scandal. According to local media reports on the leaked findings of a presidential commission appointed to investigate the charges, he could not be tried locally because South African law does not cover violations of UN sanctions. Majali had also been embroiled in a series of scandals in South Africa. He was accused of using a sham oil deal to divert 11 million rand (1.6 million dollars, 1.2 million euros) of state money to the ruling African National Congress ahead of the country's 2004 elections. He had also been accused of paying bribes for a 450-million-rand contract to supply stationery to public schools. Most recently, he was accused of defrauding a mining firm by removing its directors' names from the national property register and substituting his own and those of his associates. He was released on bail for the company hijacking charge in October and had been due to stand trial next month.
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