UNITED NATIONS – A lobbyist cited by investigators for his efforts on behalf of Iraq in the early days of the U.N. oil-for-food program,Tongsun Park, was denied bail yesterday in Houston, despite his attorney’s claim that he had been “abducted” in Mexico.

Mr. Park’s alleged lobbying efforts on behalf of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, including an attempt to bribe Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali, were described in several oil-for-food investigations. He will be flown to New York soon to face federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and acting as an unregistered foreign agent.

Efforts by his Houston-based attorney, Randy Schaffer, to have Mr.Park released on bail were denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy. Mr. Park was “abducted against his will,” Mr. Schaffer told The New York Sun yesterday.Traveling to Panama from Canada, the North Korean-born businessman made a stopover in Mexico City, where he was obtained Friday by “a bunch of agents” who escorted him to a plane going to Houston, Mr. Schaffer said.

An FBI agent, Robert Midcap, testified yesterday that the Mexican gov ernment detained Mr. Park and extradited him after it learned of the arrest warrant against him through Interpol, according to wire service accounts.

After the initial charges against Mr. Park were filed in New York Southern District federal court in the spring, press reports from Japan said he would cooperate with the federal authorities. But Mr. Schaffer told the Sun yesterday that Mr. Park will “probably” plead not guilty once he arrives in New York.

Mr. Park’s involvement in the U.N. scandal, first described in April’s federal complaint, began in the early 1990s. He allegedly received from the Iraqis bagfuls of cash, amounting to at least $2 million, in return for his effort to shape up the U.N. program.

One of the people he dealt with was identified in a new federal complaint, filed December 22, 2005, as “a former United States Government official.” The unnamed official was kept informed “beginning in at least January 1993” of attempts made by Mr. Park and another Iraqi agent to shape up the program.The former official was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Since the early 1990s,Mr.Park,along with his partner, identified in the criminal complaint only as “CW-1,” at tempted to help the Iraqi government reach an agreement with the United Nations on how to design the humanitarian program, which was finally launched in 1996, after the Clinton administration gave its blessing.

“CW-1” was identified by the investigation committee headed by Paul Volcker as a former Iraqi athlete, Samir Vincent, who last year pleaded guilty to federal charges similar to those Mr. Park faces.The two partners, according to the Volcker report, received at least $1 million from the Iraqi government as part of an attempt to bribe Mr. Boutros-Ghali in the mid-1990s.

Mr. Boutros-Ghali “denies receiving a bribe from Iraq or from Mr. Park and Mr. Vincent,” according to the report, which also concluded that “the available evidence does not indicate” even that the former secretary-general knew of the attempt to bribe him.

Another U.N. official involved with the two was later identified in the Vol cker report as Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong. Mr. Strong, who served under several Turtle Bay administrations, including as Secretary-General Annan’s adviser on reforming the United Nations in the 1990s, denied having anything to do with the oil-for-food program.