Brown 'under FBI scrutiny'

Ron Brown, the US Commerce Secretary, is at the focus of a FBI criminal investigation into allegations that he agreed to accept a dollars 700,000 payment from Vietnam government officials in exchange for helping to lift the trade embargo, according to US News & World Report, writes Phil Reeves from Washington.

The report claims that a Vietmanese businessman living in Florida has told FBI agents that his former partner asked for Mr Brown's assistance in lifting the 18- year-old US trade embargo against Vietnam in November 1992. While there is no evidence to show that Brown received dollars 700,000 or any money, law-enforcement sources say the investigation is 'active', the magazine said. Mr Brown's office issued a statement saying he 'categorically and unequivocally denies' all allegations.