A Tangled U.N. Web

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The New York Sun

The most promising among all oil-for-food investigations, the one that might go all the way up Turtle Bay’s food chain – rather than merely expose corruption among mid-level officials – is that of federal prosecutor David Kelley.


Last week, a U.N. procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev, was nailed by U.N commissioned investigators who work under Paul Volcker. Using such techniques as handwriting analysis, members of the Volcker committee determined that Mr. Yakovlev, “corruptly participated in a scheme to solicit a bribe” related to the oil-for-food program. He also corruptly received funds as part of other U.N.-related schemes, enriching himself to the tune of at least $950,000, deposited in various offshore accounts.


Just hours after the high-profile committee delivered its findings during a press conference at a Midtown hotel, Mr. Yakovlev pleaded guilty at a federal court in lower Manhattan to three counts, each carrying a maximum sentence of a 20-year jail term. Mr. Kelley communicated the news in a short press release. It was another notch in the prosecutor’s belt of oil for food-related convictions.


The Volcker report on Mr. Yakovlev was impressive in its exhaustive research, documentation, and persuasive arguments. By contrast, Mr. Kelley’s announcement was disappointedly laconic. The accusations against Mr. Yakovlev were not detailed beyond the names of the plea counts’ (conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering). Mr. Yakovlev’s lawyer, Arkady Bukh, also, declined to comment on a key question: is Mr. Yakovlev singing to the feds? The attorney told me only that he hoped the quick guilty plea would help to reduce his client’s sentence.


While nobody wants to be associated with a public rebuke by an authoritative U.N.-authorized investigation, the thought of spending the next 60 years in jail helps to one focus the mind and remember details about past misdeeds – including those committed by one’s superiors. In the past, Mr. Kelley was able to secure the cooperation of men he nabbed, like former Saddam lobbyist Samir Vincent. The feds work the case in semi-secrecy, so we don’t know whether others, like indicted Korean lobbyist Tungsun Park, are cooperating.


Meanwhile the main target of Mr. Volcker’s third interim report, former oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan, was kept by the United Nations as an employee with a $1-a-year salary for a specific purpose: to assure that he does not flee the country and that he cooperates with the committee’s investigation. Now Turtle Bay confirms that it never prevented Mr. Sevan from leaving for his homeland of Cyprus, where he is currently staying. Mr. Volcker tells us that Mr. Sevan ceased cooperating with his investigators early on.


The Volcker report claims that Mr. Sevan corruptly gained from the Iraq program he headed. It is hard to imagine what would possess Mr. Sevan to return from Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with America, while, as Mr. Volcker pointed out, a criminal investigation is being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau. Everything Mr. Sevan knows about his superiors, if anything, might forever stay in the eastern Mediterranean.


Beyond what it says, the third Volcker report speaks loudest in its omissions. It introduces Efraim Nadler, one of Mr.Sevan’s main culprits in a scheme that diverted Iraqi oil allocations. All of Mr. Nadler’s immediate family, including his two brothers and mother, as well as their Manhattan real estate possessions, are noted. Neither family member is accused of anything.


But the narrative overlooks one immediate relative: Mr. Nadler’s sister, Leia, even though she is the most intriguing kin – the wife of a former U.N. secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Another man cited in the report, Fakhry Abdelnour, is Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s cousin. Top Volcker investigators told me with a wink and a nod that that connection will be dealt with in future reports.


Urging the newly formed Volcker committee to check the origins of oil for food, this column pointed last year to ties between Mr. Sevan and Mr. Abdelnour – both sons of long-oppressed Mediterranean minority communities. (It overlooked the Jewish-Egyptian Mr. Nadler at the time.) These ties are now part of the official oil-for-food story. London’s Sunday Times yesterday reported that investigators are now looking into ties between Secretary-General Annan’s brother, Kobina, and oil-for-food figure Michael Wilson.


But what role, if any, was played by the former secretary-general and the current one? Mr. Volcker’s declared aim is to save an important world institution. The federal prosecutor, Mr. Kelley, once promised to “drain the swamp” at Turtle Bay. He is set to move into the private sector in weeks, but has cleared a path for his successor.


The New York Sun

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