Korea’s Park in US court on oil-for-food charges

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) – South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park made
his first appearance in U.S. court on Monday on charges he
secretly acted as an agent for Saddam Hussein’s regime to
enrich himself, U.N. and Iraqi officials under the U.N.’s
oil-for-food program.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy ordered Park be sent to
a federal court in New York, where the charges were filed and
where he is to be tried. Several defendants are facing criminal
charges in New York in connection with the program.

Park was not required to enter a plea to the charges at
Monday’s hearing.

The $67 billion, oil-for-food program was set up in 1995 to
allow Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods for its people
living under U.N. sanctions after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

U.S. and U.N investigations have since revealed lobbyists,
U.N. and Iraqi officials enriched themselves through kickbacks
to arrange the oil sales.

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

The indictment, released on Friday, refers to attempts to
buy the influence of two officials, who were not named.

But a separate U.N.-established investigation into the
program, led by Paul Volcker, a former U.S. Federal Reserve
chairman, said Park and another man attempted to bribe former
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The report said there was no evidence that Boutros-Ghali
was aware of the attempt or received any funds.

The Volcker panel also found that Park in 1997 invested $1
million in a Canadian company linked to the son of Maurice
Strong, a Canadian businessman and Secretary-General Kofi
Annan’s advisor on North Korea. But there was no evidence that
Strong was involved in any wrongdoing.

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

Park was arrested by FBI agents in Houston on Friday on a
one-count indictment that says he participated in a conspiracy
to commit wire fraud, act as an unregistered agent of a foreign
government and launder money.

During Monday’s hearing, Park, who remains in federal
custody, asked Stacy to ensure he would receive the twice-daily
medication he needs to prevent rejection of a transplanted
kidney. Park told the judge he did not receive the medication
until Sunday.

Park faces 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if
convicted, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Annis.

Park first gained notoriety in the 1970s as a lobbyist who
bestowed hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts on U.S.
Congress members as part of the influence-peddling scandal
dubbed “Koreagate.”