Ex-U.N. official pleads guilty to bribes

[Judi Lynn]

Aug. 9, 2005, 12:11AM

Ex-U.N. official pleads guilty to bribes
A new report accuses him and former oil-for-food chief of corruption in project scandal
News Services

NEW YORK - A former United Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting a bribe under the oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation.

Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering as well for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside of the oil-for-food program. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts in the indictment.

Yakovlev surrendered to FBI agents in Manhattan earlier Monday, as the commission investigating the oil-for-food program released a report accusing him and Benon Sevan, the former chief of the $64 billion program, of corruption. Sevan was accused of taking some $147,000 in kickbacks.

Past reports from the commission, which is led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, have exposed regulations violations and conflicts of interest, but the report on Monday was the first to accuse U.N. officials of outright corruption. Volcker's team said it would release a final report in September.
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3301702

[Pewlett Hackard]

1. From The Economist Global Agenda

The exploits of Messrs Sevan, Yakovlev and others may have done more than just a terrible disservice to the wretched people of Iraq they were paid to help

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4267109

[emad]

2. Guilty Oil-for-Food official likely to expose UN fraud: Times

August 10, 2005

Guilty Oil-for-Food official likely to expose UN fraud
From James Bone in New York



A KEY UN procurement officer could give prosecutors valuable evidence of wrongdoing at the organisation after becoming the first official to plead guilty to fraud in the Oil-for-Food scandal.

Alexander Yakovlev admitted three charges carrying 20 years each in New York on Monday, as a UN inquiry reported that he had taken almost a million dollars in bribes from companies that won more than $79 million (£44 million) in UN business.

That he surrendered to the authorities in New York and immediately entered guilty pleas suggests that he may have struck a plea bargain to co-operate with prosecutors in return for a lighter sentence.

His lawyer, Arkady Bukh, told The Times that he could not comment because of a confidentiality agreement. “Normally, if you enter a guilty plea in an expedient manner, we expect from a judge quite a lenient sentence,” he said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1728664,00.html