UN ordered to pay legal fees of oil-for-food chief

AP, via the Evening Sun ^ | February 11, 2009 | EDITH M. LEDERER

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

The U.N.'s highest internal judicial body has ordered the United Nations to pay legal fees to the former chief of its oil-for-food program, who has been accused of accepting money to illegally influence the $64 billion humanitarian program in Iraq. The program was the biggest humanitarian program in U.N. history, but a U.N.-sanctioned investigation found widespread corruption, involving thousands of parties, that bilked the humanitarian program of $1.8 billion.

The program chief, Benon Sevan, has been charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly accepting $160,000 to illegally influence the program.

The Administrative Tribunal's judgment, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, said the United Nations must pay "all reasonable legal fees" incurred by Sevan until February 2005, subject to an independent audit of the lawyers' invoices.

The judgment said Sevan and his lawyers were seeking $880,300, plus interest.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I wonder how much of this will come from U.S. tax dollars.

[PGalt]

The U.N.'s highest internal judicial body has ordered the United Nations...

UNaccountable bureaucrat$ have an unelected judicial body? Go figure $.

[bgill]

Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Is there time to put that in the stimulus package?

[NonValueAdded]

Win or lose, the lawyer gets paid.