| This just in, from our ace reporter, D.J. Wu... |
 NEW YORK: US authorities arrested a South Korean lobbyist accused of secretly scheming with top UN and Iraqi officials to create the oil-for-food programme that turned into a multibillion-dollar scandal. Tongsun Park was arrested in Houston on Friday on accusations of acting as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's former government among others charges, amending original charges filed against him last April.
| Do you get the impression you could root out at least half the dirty money in the entire world just by following Tongsun Park around? |
| ... and most of the other half by flipping through George Soros' check register ... |
Park received at least $2 million in cash from Iraq to influence the United Nations' shaping of the now-defunct oil-for-food programme, the US attorney's office in New York said in a statement. Much of that money was delivered in diplomatic pouches and it was understood he would use some to "take care" of an unnamed, high-ranking UN official, the statement said. Park was also at the centre of the 1970s "Koreagate" bribery scandal in Washington. His Defence lawyer was not immediately available for comment. "Saddam Hussein's government paid off Tongsun Park to corrupt the oil-for-food programme from its inception," US Attorney Michael Garcia said in a statement. |