GENEVA (AP) – As investigators continued their probe into the scandal-tainted U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, the Associated Press learned on Sunday that at least two Swiss trading companies paid kickbacks to secure contracts to buy oil from Saddam Hussein.

A Geneva-based firm paid a $60,000 illegal surcharge to the Iraqi oil ministry in 2001, according to documents.

The firm, Lakia Sarl, paid the money to an Iraqi-controlled bank account in Jordan in order to obtain a contract for the Iraqi oil. The company is run by Gazi Luguev, a Russian.

When Iraq failed to fulfill the contract, Luguev complained to the Iraqi Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, and demanded the kickback be returned, copying the correspondence to the United Nations.

The chief of the U.N. program, Benon Sevan – who investigators say solicited oil allocations from Saddam’s regime and opened himself to the appearance of conflicts of interest – then asked SOMO for its comment before reporting the bribe to the U.N. committee which oversaw the program.

“Due to your attitude, it is necessary for us to ask the immediate reimbursement of the sum of $60,000 – which was sent to you from us on your request for a so-called necessary’ advance payment,” Luguev said in a fax to SOMO, dated October 2002.

The price set for Lakia to pay for Iraqi oil was significantly lower than the market at that time.

When contacted for comment, Luguev said to “call back in 10 minutes.” Phones at Lakia’s Geneva offices then rang unanswered later.

Swiss authorities have already fined one other Geneva-based company for paying kickbacks under the program.

State-controlled Russian oil company Rosneft owned part of Lakia until 2000, according to Swiss records.

The United Nations’ oil-for-food program was its largest humanitarian aid operation and ran from 1996 to 2003 when it ended. It was designed to allow the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from sanctions put in place in 1991 after Saddam invaded Kuwait.

The amount of the bribe paid is the same as that paid by Lakia, although Swiss authorities declined to name the company.

According to a list compiled by the U.N. oil-for-food investigation, companies based in Switzerland brokered more Iraqi oil under the program than those from any other country except France and Russia.