Friend of U.N. Official Pleads Guilty in Bribery Case

NEW YORK (AP) - A friend of the former procurement official at the United Nations pleaded guilty Thursday in a bribery case, saying he let the official rent and later buy an apartment for his family at reduced prices so he could win lucrative U.N. contracts.

Nishan Kohli, 30, of Miami, Fla., entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan in a cooperation deal that boosted the government's case against Sanjaya Bahel, the U.N. official who is free on $900,000 bail.

Kohli admitted that after 2000, he made cash payments and real estate deals with Bahel to benefit himself and the companies he represented, including Telecommunications Consultants India Limited, which is owned by the government of India.

Kohli pleaded guilty to a bribery charge that carries a potential penalty of up to 10 years in prison, though Cote explained to Kohli that he could earn leniency by fully cooperating with prosecutors. He remains free on $1 million bail.

In a statement he read in court, Kohli said Bahel provided him with a special cell phone so he could communicate secretly and directly with Bahel, who was the chief of the U.N.'s Commodity Procurement Section from 1998 to 2003.

Kohli told the judge that he let Bahel rent a Manhattan apartment below market price and later buy it for far below market value, efforts that "were intended to influence him in return for promises of help."

The judge asked Kohli: "Did you understand you were violating the law?"

"I did," Kohli answered.

Outside court, Kohli and his lawyer declined to comment.

Bahel, 55, is scheduled to go to trial May 7 to face charges that he accepted bribes from Kohli to steer more than $50 million in contracts to companies Kohli controlled which sold technology equipment including computers.

A defense lawyer for Bahel, who has pleaded not guilty, has said there was nothing improper about the apartment transactions, especially since they occurred after Bahel had left his procurement position for another job at the United Nations.

Prior to the arrest of Bahel, the United Nations waived Bahel's immunity from legal process.

Prosecutors said in the indictment that Bahel even canceled bids by competing companies and re-bid contracts to make sure Kohli and his business interests had a competitive advantage.

Among contracts Kohli secured for his companies were a $36 million deal to provide radio communications systems to U.N. missions in East Timor, the Congo and elsewhere, a three-year contract worth nearly $8 million to provide information technology staffing support to U.N. missions worldwide and a $5 million contract to provide laptop computers, prosecutors said.

Bahel has been suspended without pay since August from his U.N. job in charge of the postal office there.