For those who have been wailing about the UN's oil for food scandal, of the first 3 people indicted, one is a Texan....
Al
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3 Indicted in U.N. Oil-For-Food Scandal
39 minutes ago
U.S. National - AP
NEW YORK - A Texas businessman, along with a Bulgarian and a British citizen, have been indicted in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime as part of the United Nations' scandal-ridden oil-for-food program, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley scheduled a late-morning news conference with an FBI official to announce the unsealing of the indictment, which his office said also named two companies operated by the Texan, whose name was not immediately released.
The kickbacks involved funds otherwise intended for humanitarian relief in Iraq, Kelley said in a statement.
In addition, Kelley was to unseal a criminal complaint that charges a South Korean citizen with conspiracy to act in the United States as an unregistered government agent for the Iraqi government's effort to create the $64 billion oil-for-food program, the statement said.
Further details were not immediately given.
On Jan. 18, an Iraqi-born American businessman accused of skimming money from the program pleaded guilty in New York to being an illegal agent of Saddam's government. Samir A. Vincent, 64, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Annandale, Va., was the first person to be charged in the Justice Department's investigation.
The U.N. program, which was endorsed by the United States and begun in 1996, permitted Iraq to sell oil despite a stiff U.N. economic embargo against Saddam's regime, provided the proceeds were used to buy food and medicine for Iraqi people suffering under the sanctions.
Among those who have come under fire in recent months over the handling of the program is U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Investigators last month criticized Annan for not pressing to learn details of his son Kojo's employment by a Swiss company that won a contract under the oil-for-food program.
Findings of an independent investigation into the program — expected in midsummer — will likely lead to dozens of criminal prosecutions by legal authorities in various countries for bribery, sanctions busting, money laundering and fraud, officials told The Associated Press last month. |
