NEW YORK — Investigators have concluded that the former chief of the Iraq Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan, took kickbacks under the $64 billion humanitarian operation and refused to cooperate with their probe, his lawyer said Thursday.| Comes as a surprise, huh? I know. It floored me, too... |
As little as $160,000? Oh, well, let's just forget the whole thing then.
| If anybody wants to kick in $160,000 to the tip jar, I promise not to dismiss it as piddlin'... |
| "No, no! Certainly not!" |
Click here to read Lewis' account of the "false allegations" against his client (pdf file).
The committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, refused to comment on Lewis' claims. Under the Oil-for-Food program, Saddam's regime could sell oil, provided the proceeds went to buy humanitarian goods or pay war reparations. Saddam's government decided on the goods it wanted, who should provide them and who could buy Iraqi oil. But the Security Council committee overseeing sanctions monitored the contracts. In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. According to Lewis, the committee will find that a small trading company called African Middle East Petroleum Co. Ltd. Inc. paid Sevan in exchange for his helping it win oil contracts from Saddam Hussein's regime. It will say that he acted "in concert" with a friend named Fred Nadler, who is the brother-in-law of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Lewis said the letter of findings that Volcker's team sent to him does not spell how much he got in kickbacks.
Volcker's team has been investigating Oil-for-Food for more than a year. In an interim report released in February, the committee concluded that Sevan solicited oil allocations from Saddam Hussein's regime on behalf of the company, known as AMEP, between 1998 and 2001. It said Nadler was essentially his middleman and accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest." In its report, Volcker's team mentioned $160,000 in "unexplained funds" belonging to Sevan. Sevan had disclosed the money earlier, saying it was from an aunt in Cyprus.
| That was the lady who fell down the elevator shaft... |
Under what conditions might he not be fired? If he blackmails Kofi?