A BRITISH oil trader accused of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein says he will fight the allegations.

John Irving, 50, is believed by American investigators to have been involved in a scheme to bypass the UN oil-for-food programme by channelling money through a front company.

Irving has been charged along with David Chalmers, owner of Houston-based Bayoil, and Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader. Chalmers and Dionissiev were arrested in Houston and will appear in court tomorrow.

Last week Irving’s lawyer, Andrew Preston, said Irving was merely a Bayoil employee and was “absolutely shocked” to be named in criminal proceedings in New York.

“He denies any wrongdoing and is going to fight this all the way. We are told there is a warrant out for his arrest and extradition proceedings have been issued in New York but we have not heard anything from the authorities in Britain.”

Irving, a married father of two from Sherborne St John, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, could face a sentence of up to 62 years and a £530,000 fine if he is found guilty.

American investigators allege he worked with Chalmers to buy Iraqi oil for Bayoil businesses from people issued with “oil allocations” by the Iraqi government. Also indicted by US prosecutors is Tongsun Park, a South Korean lobbyist, who is accused of paying off senior UN officials.

Two senior investigators examining breaches of the £35 billion programme have resigned, alleging their findings against Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, were watered down.

Lawyers for his son, Kojo, denied he ever planned to go into business selling Iraq oil and importing humanitarian aid into the country, or that his father knew of any such plans.

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