Ex-U.N. Officials Accused of Graft
UNITED NATIONS — An independent panel investigating allegations of corruption in the U.N.'s oil-for-food program for Iraq accused the program's former chief Monday of taking kickbacks and another ex-official of soliciting a bribe.
The commission's report says the program's then-chief, Benon V. Sevan, accepted more than $140,000 from an Egyptian oil dealer to steer lucrative Iraqi oil contracts his way. It accuses former senior procurement officer Alexander Yakovlev of asking a French company for a bribe in return for secret information that could help it win an oil-for-food program contract, and it says he received nearly $1 million in kickbacks from contractors on other U.N. programs.
The report marks the first time the commission, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, has accused U.N. employees of personally profiting from the oil-for-food program.
Hours after the report was released, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan waived diplomatic immunity for Yakovlev, 52, and the U.S. attorney's office in New York announced that Yakovlev had pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, each of which could bring a 20-year prison term.
Annan said he would also rescind immunity, if requested, for Sevan, who has denied wrongdoing and formally resigned from the U.N. on Sunday. But it was unclear whether Sevan would face prosecution, because he has returned to his native Cyprus, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
Yakovlev resigned from the United Nations in June after revelations that he had helped his son get a job with a company doing business with the world body. Annan's office notified investigators of the separate bribery suspicions last month, said Annan's top aide, Mark Malloch Brown.
The 88-page report released by Volcker's panel Monday says there was "persuasive evidence" that Yakovlev had received nearly $1 million in kickbacks from firms that won about $79 million in U.N. contracts outside the oil-for-food program. Investigators said that Yakovlev had about $1.3 million in a West Indies bank account under the name Moxyco Ltd. and that they had traced about $950,000 so far to companies doing business with the U.N.
Yakovlev also allegedly solicited payments from the French inspection company Societe General de Surveillance, offering inside information to help it win a contract.
