UNITED NATIONS – A Democratic Party icon of the Kennedy days, Theodore Sorensen, was hired in 1993 by an agent of Saddam Hussein, Samir Vincent, to influence top Turtle Bay officials, according to Wednesday’s Volcker report on the U.N. oil-for-food program. Vincent and his Korean partner, Tongsun Park, also financed an American pro-U.N. organization known as UNA-USA with Taiwanese money.

In the spring of 1993, Vincent, who has since pleaded guilty in a federal court to charges of acting as an unregistered agent for the Iraqi government, “sought legal advice” from Mr. Sorensen, according to the Volcker report. Attempting “to obtain an agreement between the United Nations and Iraq,” Mr. Vincent retained the services of Mr. Sorensen, who is described in the report as “a New York attorney and former special council and adviser to the United States President John F. Kennedy.”

The famed attorney was still basking in the glow of Camelot when he was hired by the Iraqi dictator’s agent to shape what ultimately became oil for food. Launched officially in 1996, the program grew into a cash cow for Saddam, fraught with bribery and corruption, according to the U.N-authorized Independent Inquiry Committee’s report. Mr. Sorensen was hired in the spring of 1993 for an undisclosed sum “to provide advice on how a ‘plan of compliance’ could be proposed to the United Nations between the two parties,” the report says.

In the spring of 1993, as Mr. Sorensen was put on Saddam’s payroll by Mr. Vincent – an undeclared foreign agent – the attorney’s wife, Gillian Sorensen, was hired by then-Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali as his special adviser for public policy, according to a biography of her posted on the United Nations Foundation Web site. Ms. Sorensen has been involved in U.N. affairs ever since, and today is a senior adviser and national advocate at the U.N. Foundation, a pro-Turtle Bay organization founded by Ted Turner.

Ms. Sorensen is also involved in Democratic Party foreign policy circles, and was among a small group of Democratic “Friends of Annan” who last year gathered at the Manhattan apartment of a former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, to try to reshape Secretary-General Annan’s agenda and save his job as he was criticized for his possible missteps in oil for food.

“There was no connection whatsoever” between her husband’s work for Mr. Vincent and hers for being hired at the same time by Mr. Boutros-Ghali, Mrs. Sorensen told The New York Sun yesterday.

Mr. Vincent, who has been cooperating with the federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York since pleading guilty, is said by the Volcker report to have solicited millions of dollars from the Saddam regime to target officials, including Mr. Boutros-Ghali, for bribery. Mr. Volcker told the Sun at a Wednesday press conference that the investigation regarding Mr. Boutros-Ghali is “ongoing.”

Another man who was recruited for the bribery scheme, according to the Volcker committee, was the North Korean-born Mr. Park, who was at the center of a Washington influence-peddling scandal in the 1970s, and who was indicted this year for his part in the attempt to bribe top U.N. officials on behalf of Saddam. Already known for his involvement in the Washington scandal known as “Koreagate,” Mr. Park, according to the new Volcker report, assisted Mr. Boutros-Ghali in 1993 and 1994 in raising funds for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

A company controlled by Mr. Park, according to the Volcker report, arranged a $4 million contribution to a Washington-based U.N. advocacy group, the United Nations Association of the United States of America. The contribution went through a Taiwanese entity known as the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce. The Volcker report stresses that although Mr. Boutros-Ghali knew Mr. Park was a Taiwanese lobbyist, he said he was not aware of the donation from Taiwan.

UNA-USA yesterday issued a statement welcoming the release of the Volcker report, using many talking points used in the last 48 hours by U.N. spokesmen, including support for Mr. Annan and calls for reform at Turtle Bay. The UNA-USA statement does not address Mr. Volcker’s findings about the organization itself, and the questions it raises, including whether, as a non-for-profit organization, it listed Taiwan – a nonmember of the U.N. – as one of its donors.

An organization spokeswoman, in fact, first heard of the reference to UNA-USA in the Volcker report from a reporter. “We have no comment at this time,” Director of Communications Peggy Atherlay told the Sun, adding that the $4 million donation was received when the organization was under a previous administration, and that it is now seeking answers.