Some interesting developments in the Oil for Food scandal came out yesterday.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released documents alleging that the inspector for Saybolt, a Dutch company hired to monitor approved Iraqi oil shipments from 1996 to 2003, enabled Saddam’s regime to sell $9 million worth of oil outside the program.

…

Coleman named Armando Carlos Oliveira, 46, a Portuguese national, as the rogue inspector who received a $105,819 payment, about 2 percent of the value of the oil smuggled in two illicit shipments in 2001.

Captain Ed observes that $100,000 is sort of cheap, in relative terms.

Also, it appears Benan Sevan may have his diplomatic immunity stripped, if Norm Coleman has his way.

Coleman also wants diplomatic immunity lifted on Benon Sevan, the former director of the now-defunct $67 billion program, which allowed Iraq to sell oil in order to buy goods that would alleviate the impact of 1990 trade sanctions.

Sevan is listed in Iraqi documents as having received oil allocations, which were then lifted by a small Panama-registered trading firm.

And a bit more direct:

Senator Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee, said the documents, presented at a hearing in Washington, suggest that Benon Sevan did not just serve as an intermediary in Iraqi oil sales, as investigators have alleged, but personally received valuable oil allocations.

Subcommittee staff say Sevan may have earned up to £635,000.

“As a former prosecutor, I believe that clear and direct evidence establishes probable cause that Benon Sevan broke the law,” Coleman said. Sevan has diplomatic immunity.