Businessman Pleads Guilty To Bribing U.N. Official
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Efforts by federal prosecutors to root out corruption at the U.N. received a boost yesterday when a Florida businessman pleaded guilty to bribing a senior U.N. procurement official.
As a liaison to the U.N. for two companies, the businessman, Nishan Kohli, was able to secure more than $60 million worth of U.N. business contracts. His guilty plea yesterday is part of a cooperation agreement he has entered into with prosecutors.
While the details of the deal did not emerge in court, it is likely that the government will call him as a witness at the trial of the U.N. official, Sanjaya Bahel, 55. The trial is scheduled for May, 2007.
Mr. Bahel was chief of the Commodity Procurement Section within the Procurement Division of the United Nations until 2003.
Prior to Mr. Bahel’s recent indictment, another top procurement department employee, Alexander Yakovlev, pleaded guilty in the summer of 2005 to corruption and wire fraud charges. Messrs. Bahel and Yakovlev were key officers involved in the awarding of a U.N. contract to the Swiss-based inspection company Cotecna, which had employed Secretary General Annan’s son, Kojo.
In addition, last January the U.N. suspended eight employees in the procurement department, including Mr. Bahel, pending an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing.
Among those suspended was Mr. Bahel’s boss, assistant secretary general for central supply services, Andrew Toh. The U.N. later created a special unit, the procurement task force, to probe the procurement scandal. The task force has cooperated with the federal authorities in preparing the charges against U.N. employees.
In federal court in Manhattan yesterday, Kohli told the judge, Denise Cote, that he had supplied Mr. Bahel with a cell phone to establish a secret line of communication. When Judge Cote asked him to describe his crime, Kohli said he rented, and later sold, two apartments to Mr. Bahel at “far below market value.”
In court yesterday, Kohli said the real estate dealings were “intended to influence” Mr. Bahel.
Judge Cote asked Kohli if he knew this was illegal.
“I did,” Kohli said.
The two apartments Mr. Bahel purchased in 2005 had a market value of about $2 million, according to the indictment against Kohli. The $1.2 million price that Mr. Bahel was asked to pay was so beneath market value that it drew the attention of the condominium board of the building, according to the indictment. The two apartments are on 47th Street, at the Dag Hammarskjold Towers, located only blocks away from the U.N. Mr. Bahel and his family lived in the two apartments for a period of time.
In comments to The New York Sun, an attorney for Mr. Bahel described his client’s purchase as “an arm’s length transaction” and said he would call real estate experts to testify at Mr. Bahel’s trial about the sale. The attorney, Richard Herman, said he expected Kohli would likely be the first witness the government called.
The real estate sale occurred in 2005, several years after the two companies Kohli represented received the contracts prosecutors say are at the center of the case. Even before the real estate deal, Mr. Bahel granted Kohli an unusual level of access to the procurement process, according to the indictment.
One company that Kohli represented, the Indian-government owned Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd, received U.N. contracts valued at more than $50 million to provide computer and radio equipment, as well as personnel, to U.N. missions across the world.
A second company Kohli was linked to, Thunderbird, was awarded a $12 million contract for engineering personnel at U.N. missions. Ultimately, the Thunderbird contract was never finalized.
The indictment alleges that Mr. Bahel severed as “a vocal advocate” of companies Kohli represented during the U.N.’s bidding process.
Mr. Herman, the attorney, defended Mr. Bahel’s tenure with the procurement division, saying the Mr. Bahel “saved the U.N. millions and millions of dollars.”
In August Mr. Bahel was suspended without pay. Mr. Herman said he is currently the subject of internal hearings at the U.N. The U.N. has waived Mr. Bahel’s immunity.
Kohli remains free on a $1 million bond. Although the bribery charge carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years, prosecutors could write a letter requesting leniency to his sentencing judge as part of the cooperation agreement.
At yesterday’s hearing, the government was represented by Jacob Buchdahl, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Kohli was represented by defense attorney Jacob Laufer.