Nadhmi Auchi, born in 1937, is a British-resident, Iraqi-born billionaire. He is believed to have a net worth of around £1.4 billion, which would make him Britain's 22nd wealthiest individual.

Auchi graduated in Economics and Political Science from the Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad in 1967. He also worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, becoming Director of Planning and Development. In 1979 he founded General Mediterranean Holding SA in Luxembourg. Auchi was Vice-Chair of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University between 1996 and 2000. He has been president of the Anglo-Arab Organisation since its founding in 2002. Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad (Arabic: ‎ translit: , Kurdish: Bexda, from Persian Baagh-daad or Bag-Da-Du meaning “Garden of God” [1]) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

In November, 2003, Auchi was given a two-year sentence for his involvement in the Elf scandal, " "the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War" according to the Guardian. Elf became a private bank for its executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments" ^[1] A French court found Nadhmi Auchi guilty of accepting £50 million worth of illegal commissions. He was also fined £1.4 million. The "Guardian" also noted that Nadhmi Auchi had helped Orascom (which owns Djezzy GSM), owned by Onsi Sawiris (worth $5.2 billion with his family according to Forbes ^[2], gain a contract to set-up mobile phone networks in post-Saddam's Iraq. Moreover, as owner of the General Mediterranean Holdings, Auchi is the largest private share-holder of BNP Paribas, which until 2001 had the escrow account through which the money from the Oil-for-Food programme transited. Elf logo Elf Aquitaine is a former French oil company merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. ... Guardian may refer to: A legal guardian, a person responsible for a ward. ... Djezzy GSM, a branch of the Egypt-based Orascom Telecom, is Algerias principal mobile phone operator, with a market share of 73% (over 5 million subscribers) and a network covering 84% of the population (48 wilayas. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, (Arabic ), born April 28, 1937 , was the President of Iraq from 1979 until he lost power over Iraq when American troops arrived in Baghdad on April 9, 2003. ... BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP, TYO: 8665 ) is one of the main banks in Europe and France. ... Escrow is a legal arrangement whereby a thing (often money, but sometimes other property such as art, a deed of title, or software source code) is delivered to a third party (called an escrow agent) to be held in trust pending a contingency or the fulfillment of a condition or... The Oil-for-Food Programme, established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986) and terminated in late 2003, was intended to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing...

References

1. ^ "The politics of sleaze", The Guardian, November 16, 2003.
2. ^ Forbes_Sawiris

External links

• Nadhmi Auchi profile at the Sunday Times Rich List
• Elf executives are jailed over £210m 'black box' fraud at The Telegraph
• Tycoon in quiz over ties to Labour from The Guardian