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

Posted on: Monday, 9 January 2006, 16:57 CST

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."

Source: REUTERS

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