Former U.N. Official Charged With Oil For Food Bribery, page 1

Benon Sevan, the ranking UN official in charge of the massively corrupt Oil For Food (OFF) program in Iraq, has been charged with accepting bribes of $160,000 in his role as head of that office. An associate has also been charged, and Interpol warrants have been issued for both men.

www.foxnews.com

Former U.N. Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan has been indicted in New York federal court for allegedly taking bribes under the program from Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. authorities announced Tuesday.

The charges, detailed in a joint press release by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office and the Manhattan district attorney, came over a year after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker completed an investigation for the United Nations into the massively corrupted Oil-for-Food program that operated in Saddam's Iraq between 1996 and 2003.

According to the press release, Sevan allegedly received $160,000 generated from the sale of Iraqi oil under the program from one Ephraim Nadler, an associate who was also indicted, on behalf of the government of Iraq. The money was allegedly used to pay off overdue credit cards and bills.

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Sevan has claimed that the extra money came from gifts from his aunt, who died in an apparent elevator shaft accident when this news was being investigated. He has also made demands to Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General, that his legal bills be paid "or else". The "or else" implied that Sevan would spill the beans on the involvement of other officials in the OFF scandal.

The UN has been ineffective and corrupt under Annan's tenure. Finally the indictments are starting to emerge. Hopefully, they will lead to much needed reform in that organization, or be a catalyst for it's demise.