"During its work, the UN commission asked the Russian side to submit a set of documents with the genuine signatures of Alexander Voloshin during the time he was working as chief-of-staff of the Russian presidential administration, since the commission suspected that the oil contracts and signatures on them were forged," the source said.
"The Russian side's documents were submitted to the UN commission, which, after checks, ascertained that Voloshin's signatures on the oil contracts were indeed forged, as were the contracts themselves."
The UN's report on program manipulation by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food program states, "The committee has obtained samples of Mr. Voloshin's signatures from Mr. Voloshin, from the Russian government and from a public source; the known signatures of Mr. Voloshin are not substantially similar to the signature that appears on the letter of December 19, 2002. The Committee was unable to find information establishing any ties between Mr. Voloshin and Impexoil."
According to the report, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil had received a letter dated December 19, 2002 "soliciting oil for Impexoil and signed under the name of Mr. Voloshin," requesting an additional oil allocation for "our permanent business partner in Iraq, Impex-Oil LLC."
The final report of the Independent Inquiry Committee led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was released Thursday in New York.
"The report is final, so the issue of the involvement or non-involvement of Voloshin in Iraqi oil contracts at the moment the UN embargo came into force is now closed," the source said.
