The government Tuesday issued a warning to Nippon Kayaku Co. over drug exports to Iraq when the country was ruled by Saddam Hussein, saying it made remittances to an Iraqi company without approval.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said the Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company violated the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law by sending commissions to an Iraqi firm between 1993 and 2002 without approval from Japanese authorities.
The law banned paying Iraqi firms while U.N. economic sanctions were in place between 1990 and 2003.
A Nippon Kayaku spokesman said the company was unaware of the need to obtain approval for the money transfers and pledged to prevent the same situation from occurring in other areas of its business.
The drug company was on a list of companies that made illicit payments to Hussein that was made public in a U.N. investigative report released in October.
Nippon Kayaku has continued to export anticancer drugs to Iraq since the U.N. sanctions were lifted.
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