UNITED NATIONS – The first domino tile in the oil-for-food scandal was knocked over yesterday when an Iraqi-born American citizen pleaded guilty to receiving millions of dollars in illicit oil allocations from Baghdad in return for arguing Saddam Hussein’s case to American and U.N. officials.

Attorney General Ashcroft said that as part of the plea, the former Iraqi star athlete Samir Vincent, age 64, agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department in its oil-for-food investigation. According to the Justice Department’s description of Mr. Vincent’s activities on behalf of Iraq, he had contacted several unnamed U.N. and Washington officials, indicating further indictments are soon to follow.

Mr. Vincent – one of three Americans who, according to findings by American weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, received oil allocations from Saddam – tried to influence the shape of the U.N.-run humanitarian program from the first days of its inception. Yesterday’s plea “puts him on the ground floor of the oil-for-food program,” said one U.N. official, who asked not to be named.

Yesterday’s plea also puts federal investigators under U.S. Attorney David Kelley of the Southern District of New York in the lead to shape public perceptions of the program that has soured the U.N.’s image around the world. There are several ongoing congressional investigations; Iraqis still want to have their own investigation into the theft of their national treasure of oil; and the U.N. has commissioned former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to conduct an independent investigation on its behalf.

Mr. Volcker yesterday issued a terse statement, saying he asked the U.S. attorney’s office to cooperate with his probe. Mr. Volcker’s investigators also asked to interview Mr. Vincent, the statement added. “It is hoped that today’s developments will allow us to meet that objective as soon as possible,” it said. An interim report from Mr. Volcker’s probe is expected by the end of January, although it might now be delayed by a few days, one source in Mr. Volcker’s office told the Sun yesterday.

Mr. Vincent, whose guilty plea on four counts includes violating sanctions against Iraq, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and evading taxes, could be sentenced to up to 28 years in jail. His ill-gotten oil gains amounted to “$3 to $5 million dollars that he benefited [from] directly,” Mr. Kelley said.

According to the plea agreement’s description, Mr. Vincent met with U.N. officials in Manhattan in 1995 and 1996 “to negotiate an agreement between the government of Iraq and the United Nations.” It was at that time that the planning for what eventually became the oil-for-food program took place at the U.N., and the meetings with Mr. Vincent seemed designed to corrupt it right from the start.

The planning culminated in a May 1996 memorandum of understanding between the U.N. and Saddam’s government, which was under international sanctions, to start selling oil again in December 1996. The proceeds were supposed to be supervised by the U.N. and member states, and were to be used to buy humanitarian goods only.

A U.N. spokesman was unable yesterday to say which U.N. officials dealt with Mr. Vincent. The original scheme was prepared at the U.N. office of legal affairs, but the plea agreement does not indicate that it was an official from that department who met with Mr. Vincent.

Benon Sevan, who later was appointed by Secretary-General Annan to head the program that oversaw the oil-for-food operation, was the head of U.N. security at the time. Mr. Sevan was later accused of receiving illegal oil allocations from Saddam. He denied any wrongdoing. There is no indication he ever met with Mr. Vincent.

Mr. Vincent, who represented Iraq in the 1964 Olympics as a decathlete, presented Saddam’s case in New York and Washington in return for five oil allocations for some 9 million barrels in the name of his company, Phoenix International. Oil allocations were Saddam’s favorite form of bribery to individuals and companies who had no oil expertise but, in Mr. Ashcroft’s words, “made large profits” by selling them at a higher price to oil brokers and companies.

The plea bargain also describes contacts Mr. Vincent had with officials from “both the Clinton and Bush administrations,” in an unsuccessful effort to change Washington’s policy toward Iraq.

In November 2001, for example, Mr. Vincent picked up a message in Baghdad “for delivery to a former official of the United States government regarding the government of Iraq’s position on re-admitting weapons inspectors to Iraq and the repeal of sanctions,” according to the plea agreement. The American official is unnamed.

Mr. Vincent arranged a 1999 meeting between Iraqi clerics and American religious leaders, also not named in yesterday’s plea bargain. The Reverend Billy Graham invited Iraqi clerics that year to tour America.