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Oil-for-food probe expected to accuse UN director
By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters
Sunday, August 7, 2005
An investigation into the oil-for-food program will accuse for
the first time on Monday the director of the defunct $67 billion
U.N. operation of getting cash from oil deals.
A U.N.-established Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, plans to release on
Monday its third interim report on allegations of corruption in the
humanitarian program for Iraq, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003.
Benon Sevan, the executive director of the program, is to be accused
of getting a kickback for steering Iraqi oil contracts to an Egyptian
trader and of refusing to cooperate with the Volcker panel, his
attorney Eric Lewis said.
Lewis called the charges "flatly false." He released Sevan's side
of the story in lengthy documents on Thursday after receiving a
letter from the panel outlining "adverse findings" that the report
would contain.
On Sunday, Lewis distributed a letter from Sevan, 67, to
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan resigning from his current job,
which he was given after he retired. The $1-a-year post carries
immunity and was meant to ensure he would cooperate with the probe.
He blamed the secretary-general and his staff for not defending the
program and making him a scapegoat.
"I fully understand the pressure that you are under, and that there
are those who are trying to destroy your reputation as well as my own,
but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our
critics or help you or the Organization," Sevan wrote.
The Volcker committee, in a Feb. 3 interim report, expressed suspicion
about four payments, amounting to $160,000, that Sevan had declared
to the United Nations as funds from his now-deceased aunt.
But Sevan noted on Sunday it was not credible he that would have
compromised his career for $160,000 after handling billions of dollars
in the program.
Sevan, a Cypriot with a distinguished 40-year career in the United
Nations, is alleged to have taken bribes "in concert with" the
brother-in-law of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Lewis said.
"The IIC claims that Mr. Sevan received money from African Middle
East Petroleum in concert with Fred Nadler, a friend, and a relative
by marriage of Mr. (Fakhry) Abdelnour, the principal of AMEP,"
Lewis said.
Nadler is the brother of Leia Boutros-Ghali, wife of the former
secretary-general. Abdelnour, the owner of AMEP, is a cousin of
Boutros-Ghali, U.N. chief from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali himself
has been questioned by the panel but is not linked to the bribe
allegations.
AMEP earned some $1.5 million from oil allocations that the panel
says Sevan steered to the Egyptian trading firm.
SECOND U.N. OFFICIAL
The report is also expected to discuss the role of Alexander Yakovlev,
a senior purchasing officer, involved in awarding a series of contracts
in the program, including the one to Cotecna.
Yakovlev, a Russian, resigned last month after the United Nations said
he was under investigation for possible conflict of interest in helping
his son get a job with a company that did business with the United
Nations. That company was not involved in the oil-for-food program.
Nevertheless, the Volcker inquiry sealed Yakovlev's office. Its
investigators are also looking into his personal financial records,
sources close to the probe said.
The Volcker panel was commissioned by Annan to examine charges of
corruption in the program, which was designed to ease the impact
on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions imposed in August 1990 after
Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050807/pl_nm/iraq_un_probe_dc_6
By Evelyn Leopold
Reuters
Sunday, August 7, 2005
An investigation into the oil-for-food program will accuse for
the first time on Monday the director of the defunct $67 billion
U.N. operation of getting cash from oil deals.
A U.N.-established Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, plans to release on
Monday its third interim report on allegations of corruption in the
humanitarian program for Iraq, which began in 1996 and ended in 2003.
Benon Sevan, the executive director of the program, is to be accused
of getting a kickback for steering Iraqi oil contracts to an Egyptian
trader and of refusing to cooperate with the Volcker panel, his
attorney Eric Lewis said.
Lewis called the charges "flatly false." He released Sevan's side
of the story in lengthy documents on Thursday after receiving a
letter from the panel outlining "adverse findings" that the report
would contain.
On Sunday, Lewis distributed a letter from Sevan, 67, to
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan resigning from his current job,
which he was given after he retired. The $1-a-year post carries
immunity and was meant to ensure he would cooperate with the probe.
He blamed the secretary-general and his staff for not defending the
program and making him a scapegoat.
"I fully understand the pressure that you are under, and that there
are those who are trying to destroy your reputation as well as my own,
but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our
critics or help you or the Organization," Sevan wrote.
The Volcker committee, in a Feb. 3 interim report, expressed suspicion
about four payments, amounting to $160,000, that Sevan had declared
to the United Nations as funds from his now-deceased aunt.
But Sevan noted on Sunday it was not credible he that would have
compromised his career for $160,000 after handling billions of dollars
in the program.
Sevan, a Cypriot with a distinguished 40-year career in the United
Nations, is alleged to have taken bribes "in concert with" the
brother-in-law of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Lewis said.
"The IIC claims that Mr. Sevan received money from African Middle
East Petroleum in concert with Fred Nadler, a friend, and a relative
by marriage of Mr. (Fakhry) Abdelnour, the principal of AMEP,"
Lewis said.
Nadler is the brother of Leia Boutros-Ghali, wife of the former
secretary-general. Abdelnour, the owner of AMEP, is a cousin of
Boutros-Ghali, U.N. chief from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali himself
has been questioned by the panel but is not linked to the bribe
allegations.
AMEP earned some $1.5 million from oil allocations that the panel
says Sevan steered to the Egyptian trading firm.
SECOND U.N. OFFICIAL
The report is also expected to discuss the role of Alexander Yakovlev,
a senior purchasing officer, involved in awarding a series of contracts
in the program, including the one to Cotecna.
Yakovlev, a Russian, resigned last month after the United Nations said
he was under investigation for possible conflict of interest in helping
his son get a job with a company that did business with the United
Nations. That company was not involved in the oil-for-food program.
Nevertheless, the Volcker inquiry sealed Yakovlev's office. Its
investigators are also looking into his personal financial records,
sources close to the probe said.
The Volcker panel was commissioned by Annan to examine charges of
corruption in the program, which was designed to ease the impact
on ordinary Iraqis of U.N. sanctions imposed in August 1990 after
Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050807/pl_nm/iraq_un_probe_dc_6