The farmers are reported to have filed a class action in Washington D.C. in a case which will draw on evidence obtained by Australia’s Cole inquiry, which has probed allegations the Australian wheat company paid $220 million in kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

The Cole inquiry is due to report its findings into the wheat trade accusations on September 30 this year.

The U.S. case also will use documents unearthed by a United Nations investigation into its oil-for-food program under which AWB says it unwittingly made the illicit payments to Baghdad.

But the claim goes further, alleging AWB used similar methods to secure grain sales in other markets in Asia and the Middle East, AAP reports.

U.S. and Canadian farmers accuse the former Australian Wheat Board of sewing up markets to the exclusion of North American producers.

They are using U.S. legislation designed to target the Mafia and outlaw criminal motorbike gangs, called the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

The claim, obtained by Fairfax newspapers, has been lodged with the U.S. District Court and alleges AWB’s activities hurt thousands of American and Canadian farmers.

A spokesman for growers involved in the suit, Bill Fletcher, said he expected the case to reveal more evidence about AWB’s alleged activities.

“We have also evaluated hundreds if not thousands of documents obtained through the oil-for-food program that through the course of this inquiry, this trial, there’ll be many more details about the specific actions of the AWB and how they effectively cornered and dislocated the international wheat market,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio Tuesday.

“What the AWB did at the expense of American wheat farmers and Canadian wheat farmers is create a situation where the global price of wheat became inflated and there could literally be damages in excess of $1 billion.”

AWB, which is yet to be officially served with the writ, said it would defend the claim.

“Such actions are ill conceived and if any action is formally brought against AWB we will vigorously defend,” spokesman Peter McBride said, according to AAP.

As well as the Iraq allegations, the farmers’ statement of claim accuses AWB of bribing officials in Pakistan and Yemen to secure wheat contracts and sabotaging the Indonesian market to shut out U.S. rivals, according to Fairfax.

The Cole inquiry has touched on the Pakistan allegations but has not delved into trading in Yemen or Indonesia.

The claim also focuses on evidence uncovered by the Cole inquiry that AWB recovered a $8 million debt for BHP-related company Tigris Petroleum by artificially inflating wheat prices through oil-for-food contracts.

The documents filed with the U.S. court accuse AWB of conspiring to use tactics including bank fraud, bribery and money laundering, AAP reports.

The class action names only six farmers but allows for more than 20,000 to join the lawsuit.

Powerful American lobby group U.S. Wheat Associates — which went public in 2003 with claims about AWB’s activities in Iraq — has said it would consider joining the action if it was approached.