A four-strong SFO team returned from Washington with what a source close to US investigators calls “thousands of documents” about the scandal.

[...]The SFO is following up two official reports published before Christmas in Washington, which detailed banking evidence that Mr Galloway’s wife and his political campaign organisation both received large sums from Saddam Hussein, laundered through under-the-counter oil allocations.

Mr Galloway is unaware of the SFO’s activities. He is in the Channel 4 TV show Celebrity Big Brother and cut off from outside contact. He is expected to be evicted from the Big Brother house tonight.

[...]According to the US inquiries, big oil traders paid secret commissions in return for acquiring Iraqi shipments, which they frequently sold on to major US oil firms. The reports detail records of one alleged transaction in 2000 in which Taurus Petroleum gave $740,000 to Mr Galloway’s agent, the businessman Fawwaz Zureikat.

Mr Zureikat distributed the cash in several directions. He kept some himself, and passed some over as a kickback to Saddam’s regime.

He also gave $340,000 as a “donation” to Mr Galloway’s pro-Iraq campaign, the Mariam Appeal, and another $150,000 to a bank account in Jordan belonging to Mr Galloway’s wife. She in turn allegedly transferred $25,000 of that to her own account in London, though she denies the transaction. The Guardian tried to put the SFO allegations to Mr Galloway but Channel 4 refused to pass them on, saying: “We don’t pass anything into the house unless something horrible has happened.”

When the Volcker report came out Mr Galloway said: “How many times must I repeat this: I’ve never had a penny through oil deals and no one has produced a shred of evidence that I have … A lie doesn’t become a truth through repetition.”

Last night a spokesman for Mr Galloway said: “There is no crime to investigate. This is politically motivated, specious, frippery. It is a total waste of public money.”