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NY prosecutor investigates UN oil-for-food head

Posted on: Monday, 11 July 2005, 21:19 CDT

By Jeanne King

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Manhattan District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, has begun a criminal investigation of the United Nations official who headed the $67 billion Iraq oil-for-food program, a spokeswoman said Monday.

No details were given of the investigation of the official, Benon Sevan, but Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for Morgenthau confirmed it was taking place.

Sevan, a Cypriot and veteran U.N. senior staff member, is also the subject of an intensive investigation by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, for allegedly steering allocations of Iraq oil to a trading company while he was in charge of the program. Sevan has denied the charges.

Volcker, who heads a U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, did not say that Sevan received bribes but mentioned that he had declared to the United Nations $160,000 in cash from 1999 to 2003 from an aunt in Cyprus, who has now died.

A February interim report from Volcker's inquiry said the aunt's lifestyle did not suggest wealth.

The Morgenthau investigation was first disclosed in the New York Sun. Also investigating corruption in the program is the federal U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District in New York, which so far has not named any U.N. officials.

The oil-for-food program began in December 1996 and terminated in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Under the program, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of the sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

Since new Iraqi leaders came to office Iraq has released lists of bribes from the Saddam government to political groups and individuals in a quest to get the sanctions lifted. The program is also the target of several corruption investigations by Congress.

Source: REUTERS

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