Ex-U.N. Officer Pleads Guilty to Bribes

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A former United Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors, federal Alexander Yakovlev also admitted to soliciting a bribe under the U.N. oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted program for Iraq.

He pleaded guilty to all three counts in the indictment — wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering — and could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Yakovlev, who lives in the New York City suburb of Yonkers, was taken into custody and released later Monday on a $400,000 bond, with no new court date immediately set, said Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York.

"We decided that it's in the best interest of the client to enter such a plea," Yakovlev's lawyer Arkady Bukh told The Associated Press. "In term of sentencing we expect much better deal if we enter a guilty plea.

The plea came hours after U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan waived Yakovlev's immunity upon Kelley's request.

Earlier Monday, a U.N.-backed probe investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program accused Yakovlev of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the program. It said he also sought a bribe as part of his work for it.

The Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, had recommended Annan lift Yakovlev's immunity if the request came.

Heather Tasker, another spokeswoman for Kelley, declined to comment on whether the timing of the guilty plea was connected to the release of the Volcker report. Kelley's statement thanked the internal U.N. watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, but not Volcker's team.

Volcker had singled out the U.S. Attorney's Office for failing to cooperate with his own probe into the $64 billion oil-for-food program.

Yakovlev, who is Russian, resigned in June after separate allegations came to light suggesting that he helped his son get a job with a company that did business with the United Nations.

But his immunity would still have held for the time he worked for the United Nations.

The oil-for-food program, launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, allowed Saddam's regime to sell oil, provided the proceeds went to buy humanitarian goods or pay war reparations. Saddam allegedly sought to curry favor by giving former government officials, activists, journalists and others vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050808/ap_ ... uilty_plea

See, John Bolton will fit in just fine.

had this been someone from the US, this thread would have 134 replies, with 133 of them saying how it is all the fault of bush

Yep.

Are you really sure, that Bush wasn't somehow involved in this?

Well ... what percentage of RM users are Americans? I still don't understand why you're always upset when we don't attack leaders from other nations. We have no fucking idea who they are.

then do some fucking research instead of hitting on genxgirl or nat, and pointing people to what you deem the correct thread

Get over yourself, King Peeps.

I wonder if Nick is related to Milton.

funny i thought the same of you

I for one am happy to see some actual people brought to task for their mishandling of the UN and it's programs. Just be careful what you wish for, because you might actually get it. If you start pulling on loose threads, and unravel the whole stinking mess, you never know who you might find holding the dirty money along the way.

Which is why someone appointed to represent the U.S. who *gasp* had the audicity to challenge the inert culture of corruption within the UN may not be as evil an idea as people here make it out to be. Is Bolten a nice guy? No. But will he add some legitimacy to calls for change within the organization. Hopefully.

What did Bolton have to do with this?

I'm sure most Americans are in favor of corruption in the UN.

Sure, we all want accountability and honesty in the UN. John Bolton, who has no credibility within his own country, much less the world stage, wasn't the right man to choose for the job. If you want change, you need to have someone that people are going to listen to and take seriously.

Well, most people here seem to turn a blind eye to corruption if it doesn't involve anyone affiliated with the Bush Administration. Apathy reigns supreme if you ask me.

With respect to Bolton, I don't know why people think representatives of members of the UN won't listen to Bolton. Bolton's job isn't making policy -- it's representing policy. What is so reprehensible about him that makes you believe he'll be persona non grata?

Can't help it if the Bush administration is the main purveyor of corruption these days.



I've just known plenty of people who operate the way he does by all accounts, and they are seldom liked/respected. We'll have to wait and see is the bottom line.

Like I said, you never know who is going to be found holding the bag when the covers are pulled off. If it's someone who is "allied" with Bolton, he might not be such a crusader for justice, if you know what I mean.

I'm sure there are some here that know who these leaders are. I've read up on them just as Europeans and the rest of the world have done with U.S. officials. But Bush is a good target and a very good official to hate and bash. These leaders worldwide such as Chirac, Kim, Schroder, Putin, etc., etc., etc. are just as corrupt as Bush and U.S. officials. Their greed is just as disgusting but the world would rather bash Bush instead of focusing on their own corrupted officials.

You can count on me wishing. I don't care how far the trail goes back and who's hands are holding the bag. From someone sweeping the floor at the U.N. all the way up to Kofi himself and thru the administrations throughout the world. Get them out of here!

I'm American. I'll focus on Bush.