Iraq set aside $15 million to bribe UN leader

"UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iraq set aside $15 million (8 million pounds) 10 years ago to bribe or otherwise influence then-U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to shape the oil-for-food program to Saddam Hussein's liking, investigators said on Wednesday.

Iraqi officials gave millions of that in cash in the mid- to late-1990s to middlemen who were supposed to bribe or influence Boutros-Ghali, according to the findings of the Independent Inquiry Committee led by Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

There was no evidence that Boutros-Ghali, who left the United Nations in 1996 after a single term, received any of the money or knew about the scheme, the investigators said.

Among the cast of characters in the complex scheme were Tongsun Park, a South Korean who played a central role in a 1970s Washington influence peddling scandal, and Iraqi-American oilman Samir Vincent, both of whom have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the oil-for-food program.

Also involved were Canadian businessman and longtime U.N. aide Maurice Strong and Cordex Petroleums Inc., a now-bankrupt Canadian oil company whose major investors included Strong's son Frederick and CSL Group Inc., a holding company owned by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin.

The findings came out of Volcker's year-long investigation into corruption and mismanagement in the $64-billion humanitarian aid program, which began in 1996 and was shut down in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq."
Reuters