GE to pay $23 million to settle illegal Iraq kickback charges

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint filed Tuesday in federal court that GE subsidiaries gave cash, computers, medical supplies and other goods worth $3.6 million to the Iraqi health and oil ministries from 2000 to 2003.

The SEC charges that the kickbacks were in return for contracts to supply medical and water purification equipment under the United Nations' oil-for-food program, which provided humanitarian aid to prewar Iraq.

The SEC said the GE case involves four subsidiaries, two owned by the conglomerate at the time of the alleged kickbacks and two that GE acquired after 2003. Two of the units, Ionics Inc. of Burlington, Ma., and the British firm Amersham PLC, are also named as defendants.