Trial of lobbyist in Iraqi oil-for-food case starts

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jury selection began on Monday in the
trial of a South Korean lobbyist accused of acting as a
unregistered foreign agent of former Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein in the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Tongsun Park, 71, is alleged to have accepted millions of
dollars from the Iraqi government and scheming with top U.N.
and Iraqi officials to defraud the now-defunct program.

His trial in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan is the
first U.S. federal case in the international scandal. Park has
pleaded not guilty and faces a maximum of five years in prison
and a $250,000 fine if convicted. Opening arguments were
expected on Tuesday.

The oil-for-food program allowed Iraq to sell oil and use
the proceeds to buy nonmilitary goods, under United Nations
supervision. It aimed to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions
imposed after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait but the $67
billion program was rife with corruption, investigators say.

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

Park is one of several defendants indicted in the United
States. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and
money laundering.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin and attorneys in the case
began jury selection by agreeing that potential jurors would be
asked if anything they might know about the oil-for-food
scandal could influence their ability to be fair.

Park gained notoriety in the 1970′s as a lobbyist who gave
hundreds of thousands of dollars to members of Congress as part
of the influence-peddling scandal dubbed “Koreagate.”

The judge ruled last week that evidence of his role in that
affair was not relevant but said prosecutors could introduce
evidence of Park’s relationships with high-level U.N.
officials, including former secretary general Boutros
Boutros-Ghali.

Prosecutors say in 1993 Park met with an unnamed
high-ranking U. N. official at his Manhattan apartment to set
the terms of the program.

They contend Park worked with Samir Vincent, an
Iraqi-American businessman who has pleaded guilty in the case
and is cooperating with the government. He is expected to
testify in this trial.

Last week Park was charged in Washington with lying to the
FBI. Prosecutors alleged he falsely told investigators he did
not play a role in the adoption of a U.N. resolution that set
up the oil-for-food program.

Other defendants in the case include Texas oil tycoon Oscar
Wyatt and David Chalmers, of Houston-based Bayoil Inc., whose
trial is set to start in November.