South Korean convicted in oil-for-food case

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. federal court jury convicted
South Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park of acting as an unregistered
foreign agent for Iraq and money-laundering on Thursday for his
role in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.

The jury deliberated for less than a day after a
two-and-a-half week trial that told of briefcases bulging with
cash and secret meetings involving Saddam Hussein or former
U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Gali.

It was the first U.S. federal trial related to the
corrupted U.N. oil-for-food program, which had been designed to
help provide humanitarian relief to Iraq while it was under
international sanctions for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The $67 billion program spawned a kickback and bribery side
business that implicated officials, companies or politicians
from some 40 countries, according to a panel headed by former
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

U.S. prosecutors say Park acted on behalf of Saddam by
lobbying U.S. and U.N. officials to drop economic sanctions
against the former Iraqi president and that Park broke the law
by failing to notify the Justice Department.

Park, 71, faces up to five years in prison. Judge Denny
Chin had denied him bail, saying he was a flight risk, and Park
has been held in a jail hospital to treat his diabetes.

“He is disappointed because he is not guilty. We are hoping
Judge (Denny) Chin will enter of judgment of acquittal,”
defense lawyer Michael Kim said.

Kim has asked for dismissal, saying the conspiracy alleged
could no longer be prosecuted under the statute of limitations.

Prosecutors also say Park received some $2 million from
Iraq and had sought up to $10 million on the premise that he
needed it to bribe his friend, Boutros-Gali. There was no
evidence Boutros-Gali received any money.

Six others under indictment in New York in the oil-for-food
case have yet to be tried, including Texas oil tycoon Oscar
Wyatt. Kim said Park’s conviction was unlikely to have much
impact “because those cases are very different.”

Park previously had gained notoriety in the 1970s as a
lobbyist who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to members
of Congress as part of the influence-peddling scandal dubbed
“Koreagate.” Charges against him were dropped.