Thursday’s final Volcker report on the scandal-plagued oil-for-food programme shone an embarrassing spotlight upon the corporate accomplices of Saddam Hussein’s regime, whose readiness to pay kickbacks and surcharges helped him raise $1.8bn (€1.5bn, £1bn) in illicit revenue.

It revealed important new information not only about the sale of Iraqi oil, but about how Iraq’s goods suppliers helped funnel millions of dollars to the regime through a 10 per cent kickback scheme.