Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Former U.N. official pleads guilty in oil-for-food scandal
Associated Press
Published August 9, 2005
UNITED NATIONS - It was Alexander Yakovlev's role in awarding U.N. contracts under the embattled oil-for-food program that put him in the spotlight, but it was his pocketing of hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies eager to win other U.N. contracts that led to his downfall.
The former United Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting a bribe under the $64-billion program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation.
Yakovlev, a Russian, also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for accepting bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside oil-for-food. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts in the indictment.
He surrendered Monday to FBI agents in New York, as U.N.-backed investigators released a report accusing him and Benon Sevan, the former program chief, of corruption. Sevan was accused of taking $147,000 in kickbacks.
The investigation, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, also found that two men helped Sevan: Fred Nadler, an African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd. director and brother-in-law of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; and Fakhry Abdelnour, the president of AMEP.
Sevan, a Cypriot citizen, denies the allegations.
Yakovlev, 52, resigned in June over separate allegations that he helped his son get a job with a company that did business with the United Nations.
The investigators found that Yakovlev tried to bribe a company called Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A.
They also said Yakovlev took at least $950,000 in kickbacks from companies that had won some $79-million in separate U.N. contracts.
Volcker's team said it would release a final report in September. It is expected to consider new evidence suggesting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan knew more about a contract awarded to a Swiss company that employed his son, Kojo. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, was one of the largest humanitarian programs in history.
[Last modified August 9, 2005, 01:24:12]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
