UNITED NATIONS -- A U.N. official showed up at the U.S. mission to the United Nations in 2006 with an alarming story: The U.N. Development Program office he ran in North Korea had stashed thousands of dollars in counterfeit U.S. cash in a safe, diverted tens of millions more into the coffers of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and possibly supported North Korea's weapons programs.For the next year and half, Artjon "Tony" Shkurtaj, an Albanian national who served as the UNDP's operations manager in Pyongyang, guided U.S. officials on a tour of U.N. malfeasance in North Korea, furnishing internal U.N. documents and an insiders' analysis of how the global body violated its rules and helped North Korea obtain hard currency and sensitive high-tech equipment.
His claims triggered investigations by U.S. officials, the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, and led to Shkurtaj's designation as a whistle-blower by the United Nations' ethics chief. Mark D. Wallace, the U.S. diplomat briefed by Shkurtaj, accused the UNDP of complicity in a scheme to divert millions of dollars worth of aid for the poor to Kim's personal treasure chest.