Article

2005-08-08 International-UN-NGOs

Breaking News: Ex-United Nations Official Taken Into Custody

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Posted by Slemble Glomotch8642 2005-08-08 14:29|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Here id the link from al-Rooters

Alexandr Yakovlev arrested for taking $1 million in "payments" (bribes) on the $79 million in UN contracts awarded...

Posted by BigEd 2005-08-08 15:32|| 2005-08-08 15:32|| Front Page Top

#2 Here's what Fox has to say:
Alexander Yakovlev was stripped of his diplomatic immunity Monday and taken into custody by federal authorities, a U.N. spokesman announced Monday.
Yakovlev, a longtime U.N. procurement official who handled tens of millions of dollars worth of U.N. supply contracts annually, was accused in a report Monday of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the Oil-for-Food (search) program.

Yakovlev resigned from his job earlier this summer after a FOX News investigation.

The news came after Volcker's U.N.-approved panel, the Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), released its latest report highlighting mismanagement of Oil-for-Food.

The report also accuses Benon Sevan (search), the one-time head of the Oil-for-Food program who severed his ties with the United Nations on Sunday, of taking kickbacks under the multi-billion dollar humanitarian operation aimed at easing the effects of sanctions on Iraqi civilians.

Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, also said in releasing the report that Sevan should also lose his diplomatic immunity so he can be prosecuted for alleged crimes.

"All I can fairly say is that given the kind of evidence that we have presented, I would think there may well be interest in doing so," Volcker said, referring to Sevan and Yakovlev losing their immunity.

Read the report by clicking here (pdf).

Investigators found that Yakovlev secretly tried to bribe a company called Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), which was seeking an oil inspection contract under Oil-for-Food.

They said Yakovlev passed secret bidding information along to a friend in France, Yves Pintore, who then approached SGS to check if it would "work with" him and "influential people in the U.N. in New York."

Volcker's team found no evidence that the company agreed to the bribe. However, it noted that Pintore essentially agreed to its characterization of his involvement.

The committee found "persuasive evidence" that Yakovlev took some $950,000 from other U.N. contractors outside Oil-for-Food.

It said it had found that some $1.3 million had been wired to a bank account in Antigua, West Indies in the name of Moxyco Ltd. Of that, more than $950,000 had been traced to those companies so far.

Yakovlev was the U.N. officer in charge of awarding contacts to both Saybolt (search) and Cotecn (search)a big contracts for Iraq, and the Volcker committee relied on his claims that in both cases, but particularly that of Saybolt, he had fought against the violation of U.N. rules.

But Yakovlev, a Russian native, abruptly resigned from the United Nations in late June, after a FOX News investigation revealed that he was involved in an apparent conflict of interest with a regular U.N. supplier, IHC Services Inc., which had hired Yakovlevâs son Dmitry between 2000 and 2003, according to Dmitryâs own resume.

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2005-08-08 15:37|| home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-08-08 15:37|| Front Page Top

#3 WOO-HOO!

The fun has begun.

Double butter on that popcorn, please. :-D

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-08 15:38|| 2005-08-08 15:38|| Front Page Top

Leavenworth Federal Prison

I do hope Sasha likes the climate in farm country...

Posted by BigEd 2005-08-08 15:43|| 2005-08-08 15:43|| Front Page Top

#5 I hope someone get's a picture of Benan Sevan's face when he sees the photos of Yakovlev taking the perp walk.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-08-08 15:44|| 2005-08-08 15:44|| Front Page Top

#6 Jackal,

Thank you.

I apologize for posting without a link. There was no link at the time. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, I just had to open the present.

Posted by Poison Reverse 2005-08-08 15:47|| 2005-08-08 15:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Moxyco nomo.

Posted by AbuRatcatcherToTheStars 2005-08-08 15:50|| 2005-08-08 15:50|| Front Page Top

#8 any comments, Senator Kerry?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-08-08 15:51|| 2005-08-08 15:51|| Front Page Top

#9 The big deal here is that the bribes were from contracts outside the Oil for Food program. Suggests the corruption is deep and widespread at the UN.

Posted by leader of the pack 2005-08-08 15:57|| 2005-08-08 15:57|| Front Page Top

#10 lotp - suggests the corruption is widespread at the UN?

It would be front-page news if somebody managed to find a UN employee above clerk level who wasn't mired in corruption.

How can you tell if an UN official is corrupt? He's breathing.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2005-08-08 16:04|| 2005-08-08 16:04|| Front Page Top

#11 okay: suggests to people who don't actually keep up with the news much ....

which is a lot of people who don't read RB and similar sites.

Posted by leader of the pack 2005-08-08 16:09|| 2005-08-08 16:09|| Front Page Top

#12 PR: Without your heads-up, I wouldn't have gone looking for the article. That's the neat thing about RB (well, besides the rants): the interaction between the people here. E Pluribus Rantum.

Posted by Jackal">Jackal 2005-08-08 16:35|| home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html]">[home.earthlink.net/~sleepyjackal/index.html] 2005-08-08 16:35|| Front Page Top

#13 E Pluribus Rantum.

That's a slogan you don't mess with.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2005-08-08 18:40|| 2005-08-08 18:40|| Front Page Top

#14 I just got a Fox News alert that sez the mutt has just pleaded guilty!

Posted by Scooter McGruder 2005-08-08 20:34|| 2005-08-08 20:34|| Front Page Top

#15 The Guilty Plea -- link here:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165124,00.html

Posted by Scooter McGruder 2005-08-08 20:35|| 2005-08-08 20:35|| Front Page Top

#16 How's his singing voice?

Every crack in the wall contributes to bringing the whole rotten mess down.

Posted by .com 2005-08-08 20:38|| 2005-08-08 20:38|| Front Page Top

#17 I wonder how Koffi Annan is sleeping these days.....

Posted by CrazyFool 2005-08-08 22:11|| 2005-08-08 22:11|| Front Page Top

#18 I wonder how Kofi Annan is sleeping these days.....

with his pants and shoes on, and a backup exit nearby

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-08-08 22:25|| 2005-08-08 22:25|| Front Page Top

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