trading with the enemy
From the Corporate Crime Reporter:

ChevronTexaco trading with Iraq.

The New York Yankees, Wal-Mart, ESPN, and Caterpillar trading with Cuba.

ExxonMobil and Wells Fargo trading with the Sudan.

These companies are among 59 companies that have settled charges of trading with the enemy brought by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The settlements were released over the past two weeks.

The settlements were publicized today by Corporate Crime Reporter, a weekly newsletter based in Washington, D.C.

While the settlements were posted on OFAC's web site, they were buried here, and the lists went unreported.

Some of the wilder reaches of comment have blamed French, German and Russian governments for trying to block the invasion of Iraq for crass commercial reasons. Undoubtedly that charge is at least partially true. What is also true is that US corporations did a roaring trade with Iraq. It is no surprise that the grubby details of who traded with who have been suppressed. It is equally true that the US government's efforts to restrict postwar tendering to US corporations may have factored into the prospect of US corporate profits.

After all the evidence of Halliburton's dealings with iraq are a matter of public record while one Dick Cheney was CEO of that company.