U.N. SLICKSTER EYED IN LAUNDER SCHEME
By NILES LATHEM
NY POST
December 8, 2004 -- WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators are examining whether the former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program laundered profits from shady oil deals with Saddam Hussein through family businesses in Cyprus to make it look as if his newfound wealth was coming from an "inheritance."
A spokesman for the House International Relations Committee told The Post yesterday the panel is investigating new information that ex-oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan concocted an elaborate scheme to hide profits he received from sweetheart oil deals by diverting money to family members in his native Cyprus.
"The information we received is that he diverted the money [from the deals] to family members in Cyprus," the spokesman said.
"We have been informed that it was set up so that if he were to be put in a room and asked where his money came from, he would say it came from inheritance from his grandmother or an aunt."
The committee is now searching for a money trail through banks in several countries, the spokesman said. Sevan hasn't been questioned by the congressional probers.
Sevan, an Armenian Cypriot, is a career U.N. bureaucrat at the center of the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal, which has thrown the world body into a crisis and threatens to topple Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Sevan, who owns homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons, is alleged to have made millions in profits through a scheme in which Saddam granted vouchers that allowed recipients to buy Iraqi oil at below-market prices and resell it on the open market at profits of up to 50 cents a barrel.
In one series of trades, revealed in Iraqi Oil Ministry documents earlier this year, Sevan earned $1.2 million through nine oil allocations from 1998 to 2003 through Africa Middle East Petroleum, a mysterious Panamanian-based company headed by a nephew of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
A report by CIA weapons inspector Charles Duelfer in October said Sevan received allocations from several other companies, including one based in Cyprus.
Duelfer also reported that an Egyptian middleman associated with Africa Middle East Petroleum would travel to Baghdad and sign documents on Sevan's behalf and pick up the oil vouchers.
Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Ramadan personally oversaw the deals involving Sevan, Duelfer reported.
Sevan eventually was cut off from the oil gravy train because Saddam was not satisfied he was doing enough for him and was angered that Sevan's companies were not paying kickbacks to his regime, investigators said.
Sevan has repeatedly denied he took oil bribes from Saddam.
He remains at the United Nations under a $1-a-year arrangement so he can cooperate with the independent commission headed by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker.
Sources said Sevan's oil dealings with Saddam are an early priority for Volcker, along with the relationship between Annan's son, Kojo, and a Swiss company that won a lucrative oil-for-food contract.
Volcker is expected to issue a preliminary report on his probe to Annan and congressional committees next month.
Sevan is considered a close associate of Annan and Boutros-Ghali, who was ousted from the United Nations in 1996 under pressure from the Clinton administration. |
