The Australian Securities and Investments Commission applied to the Federal Court last week for access to the transcript of the class action, which ended on Monday after three days of a scheduled five-week hearing. In an affidavit supporting the application, a senior manager of the commission, Brendan Caridi, said he was ''responsible for the conduct of an ongoing investigation by ASIC concerning the affairs of (AWB) arising out of or in connection with the supply of wheat to Iraq''.

Mr Caridi said the transcript could help the investigation, which began after the 2006 commission of inquiry headed by Terence Cole, QC, found that AWB concealed paying $US221.7 million to the Iraqi government in breach of United Nations sanctions between 1999 and 2003.

The transcript could also assist the commission in civil penalty proceedings it has filed in the Victorian Supreme Court against AWB's former chairman Trevor Flugge and five former executives, Mr Caridi said.

The court stayed five civil penalty cases in 2008 ''until and unless'' a prosecuting authority advises the defendants that no criminal proceedings will be brought on the same subject matter. A sixth civil penalty case, against the former managing director Andrew Lindberg, began last year and the commission is trying to bring an extra civil penalty case against him.

The Australian Federal Police closed its investigation into the kickbacks in August, but said it would offer ''such assistance as is required to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to assist that agency to complete its investigation''.

AWB settled the class action by agreeing to pay 1000 aggrieved shareholders $39.5 million, including interest and shareholders' costs.

The settlement is subject to the approval of Justice Lindsay Foster, who is scheduled to hear more from both sides this morning.

Before the settlement was struck, AWB's lawyers filed an outline of submissions containing an admission that the company had known that ''transport fees'' it paid a Jordanian trucking company, Alia, were being passed on to an Iraqi government agency.