South Korean arrested in Iraq oil-for-food scandal

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. authorities arrested a South
Korean lobbyist in connection with the U.N. oil-for-food
program for Iraq on Friday, alleging he conspired to aid Saddam
Hussein’s former Iraq government.

Tongsun Park was arrested in Houston, the U.S. attorney’s
office in New York said in a statement. Last year he was
charged with being an unregistered agent for Iraq.

Prosecutors said amended charges against him have been
filed in connection with the arrest, though further details
were not immediately available.

Park was also at the center of 1970s “Koreagate” bribery
scandal in Washington.

U.S. authorities last year alleged Park received at least
$2 million in cash from Iraq to influence the United Nations’
shaping of the now-defunct oil-for-food program.

Prosecutors said Park had worked with Samir Vincent, an
Iraqi-American businessman who previously pleaded guilty in the
scandal, to promote a program under which Iraq could sell its
oil despite economic sanctions.

Park’s defense lawyer was not immediately available for
comment.

The $67 billion, oil-for-food program allowed Iraq to sell
oil to buy civilian goods for its people living under U.N.
sanctions. It began in 1996 and ended after the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003.

Saddam diverted some $1.8 billion in kickbacks and
surcharges from the program, according to a U.N.-established
Independent Inquiry Committee led by former U.S. Federal
Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

More than 2,000 firms that did business with Iraq in the
now-defunct program were involved in bribes and kickbacks to
Saddam Hussein’s government, the Volcker report said.

Several defendants are facing criminal charges in federal
court in New York in connection with the program.