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Prosecutors promised on Monday to prove that Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's government, earning him a privileged position in Iraq. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Miller told jurors at opening arguments of Wyatt's trial that prosecutors would present photos, audio tapes, bank records, U.N. records and Iraqi government records proving Wyatt paid kickbacks to win Iraqi oil contracts . "Oscar Wyatt's years of assistance to the Hussein regime earned him a privileged status in Iraq," Miller said. Wyatt, an 83-year-old self-made oil tycoon, faces five counts in Manhattan federal court including engaging in...

Texas oil trader Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow on charges he paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein to sell Iraqi oil under the United Nations oil-for-food program. The trial is expected to include references to two other Texans who dabbled in oil: U.S. President George W. Bush and his father, the former president. The Bushes don't face any charges. Mr. Wyatt says he believes the U.S. government targeted him because he has been an outspoken critic of the two Bush administrations, particularly over the two wars in Iraq....

WYATT: U.S. OUT TO GET ME By RICHARD WILNER September 2, 2007 - Oscar Wyatt, the last of the Texas oil wildcatters, is a self-made billionaire, World War II fighter pilot and an outspoken critic of Gulf War I and Gulf War II. But this week, federal prosecutors intend on painting the 83-year-old tycoon as one of the most unpatriotic lowlifes of recent history. The government alleges Wyatt's Coastal Corp. paid millions of dollars in bribes to Saddam Hussein in order to get oil under the botched United Nations oil-for-food program. Prosecutors last week won the right to show jurors...

WASHINGTON — Houston oilman David Chalmers, accused of funneling illegal payments to Saddam Hussein's regime at at time when Iraq was the target of strict economic sanctions, pleaded guilty today to a conspiracy charge. Chalmers' business associate at Houston-based BayOil, Ludmil Dionissiev, pleaded guilty to one count of facilitating a shipment of merchandise into the United States, knowing that shipment to not be authorized by law. That leaves Houston oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt as the lone defendant still slated to go to trial in September on charges he made millions of dollars in illicit payments to Saddam's government for the...

A Texas oil executive pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a scheme to cheat the United Nations oil-for-food program out of millions by paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraq regime. David Chalmers, the sole shareholder of Bayoil USA Inc. in Houston, was set to go on trial next month on charges he used a cozy relationship with Iraq in the 1980s to secure oil contracts. He could have faced more than 60 years in prison if convicted. Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend a 37- to 46-month term when he is sentenced Nov. 19. Chalmers...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Texas oilman David Chalmers and two companies he owns pleaded guilty on Friday to paying millions of dollars in secret kickbacks to Iraq in connection with the United Nations oil-for-food program. Chalmers, 53, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, just weeks before he was due to go on trial with Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt. Earlier on Friday, Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader based in Houston, pleaded guilty to smuggling. Prosecutors said Dionissiev, 61, worked with Chalmers to buy Iraqi oil for Chalmers' companies -- Bayoil...

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said he opposes creation of a Palestinian state at this time and would take a tough stand with Iran, including destroying its nuclear infrastructure "should all else fail." "It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism," the former New York mayor said. "Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel," Giuliani...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for Oscar Wyatt has asked a judge to exclude evidence from his upcoming trial that suggests a link between the Texas oil tycoon and Saddam Hussein and a tip to Iraq about the U.S. invasion. The motion, filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, comes three weeks before Wyatt, former chairman and founder of Coastal Corp., goes on trial accused of paying secret kickbacks to Iraq and corrupting the U.N. oil-for-food program. He has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to pay several million dollars in kickbacks to Iraq in relation to the...

...Galloway's front organization, a "charity" known as the Mariam Appeal that campaigned against the sanctions on Iraq, had in fact received direct Iraqi subventions from the proceeds of the U.N.-sponsored "Oil for Food" program. Bank records established that Galloway's former wife had been paid at least $150,000 in this way. A completely separate U.N. inquiry chaired by former Treasury Secretary Paul Volcker identified another "Oil for Food" payment to the same lady, this time in the sum of $120,000.Snip...This raises two quite serious questions. The first is the extent to which the Iraqi Baath Party was able to purchase direct...

LONDON - The British Parliament's lower house on Monday suspended a lawmaker accused of concealing his financial dealings with Saddam Hussein's government. George Galloway, known for his fierce opposition to Britain's role in the invasion of Iraq, was suspended for 18 days, following an investigation which found that a charity he set up was partly funded by the Iraqi dictator. The decision, which came without a vote, followed a recommendation from a parliamentary disciplinary panel that investigated the charity. Galloway accused his opponents of hypocrisy. "Being lectured by the current House of Commons on the question of the funding of...

George Galloway faces new funds investigation By Tim Shipman in Washington, DC, Sunday Telegraph  Last Updated: 11:57pm BST 21/07/2007  George Galloway faces renewed investigation by US authorities over the channelling of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments from Saddam Hussein's regime to his Iraq charity.   George Galloway denies he solicited oil allocations   Three different bodies of prosecutors and the US justice department are preparing to examine the report by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and the House of Commons committee responsible for MPs' standards, published last week.Sir Philip found that, by turning a...

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

UNITED NATIONS — A member of Britain's Parliament who professed support for Saddam Hussein and has clashed with American legislators over his role in the oil-for-food scandal, George Galloway, may face a criminal investigation in Britain after a House of Commons disciplinary committee recommended his suspension for 18 days. According to one new piece of evidence that emerged from yesterday's 181-page report by the House of Commons's Committee on Standards and Privileges, Mr. Galloway made an apparent request to Saddam that "dues" owed by Iraq to fund his cooperative efforts with the dictator be paid without delay, and that declining...

July 17th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - The United Kingdom House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges has released a report today concerning MP George Galloway and his misconduct related to the Oil-for-Food Program. The Parliament report was highly critical of Galloway's activities related to the Program, ruling against Galloway on every charge. Finally, the Committee recommends that he be suspended from the House of Commons for eighteen working days – which is reportedly "one of the most severe [penalties] given to an MP" – and requests that he apologize for his misconduct. In arriving at its conclusions, the...

GEORGE GALLOWAY, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq. The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as

MP George Galloway is set to be suspended from Parliament over his links to a charity bankrolled by illicit deals involving Saddam Hussein's regime. He will be barred from the Commons for one month by Parliament's standards watchdog for failing properly to declare his connections with the Mariam Appeal, it was reported. Mr Galloway, who became an MP for his own Respect party after being expelled from Labour, may also be asked to apologise for his behaviour by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir Philip Mawer. Last month a damning report by the Charity Commission concluded that the Mariam Appeal,...

LONDON - A British oil trader was arrested Thursday on U.S. charges of paying bribes to Saddam Hussein as part of the discredited U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq. Metropolitan Police said John Irving, 52, was detained in central London on a U.S. extradition warrant. He appeared at the city's Westminster Magistrates Court and was released on bail until his next hearing on July 20. Irving was one of three men charged in New York in 2005 with cheating the United Nations of at least $100 million that should have gone to humanitarian aid for Iraqis. The other two — Texas...

A prosecutor told a jury on Monday that a former United Nations procurement official charged with bribery was a greedy and deceitful diplomat who exchanged nearly $100 million in contracts for a sweetheart deal on a luxury apartment and cash. Deputy U.S. Attorney Cathy Seibel promised the jury in her opening statement that the government would prove through more than 20 witnesses and hundreds of documents that Sanjaya Bahel secretly helped a Florida friend secure lucrative contracts from 1999 to 2003. She said the friend, Nishan Kohli, of Miami, agreed that his family's businesses would kick back 10 percent of...

Chevron squeezed for oil sales Company poised to pay millions over alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, May 9, 2007 Chevron Corp. is near an agreement to pay a $25 million -to-$30 million fine over alleged kickbacks in the company's purchases of Iraqi crude oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a published report Tuesday. The New York Times reported that Chevron is negotiating a settlement with federal prosecutors investigating a scandal-ridden United Nations program that allowed Iraq to use oil exports to buy food despite international sanctions. As part of the settlement, San Ramon's...

Canada involved in effort to lift Iraq from chaos Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service Published: Friday, March 16, 2007 UNITED NATIONS — Canada offered Iraq help on Friday to lift it from chaos while speaking at a closed international meeting as one of the key powers seeking to involve as many countries as possible in the reconstruction of the war-torn country. While Ottawa kept wraps on its speech inside the United Nations meeting room, officials revealed the Canadian delegate spoke about the need to extend economic and political help. Attended by more than 80 countries, the meeting represented a...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry poured scorn on a U.S. court's conviction of one of its U.N. diplomats for money laundering, saying on Thursday it had grave doubts about the trial. Vladimir Kuznetsov, 49, who once chaired a U.N. budget committee, was found guilty on Wednesday of helping launder more than $300,000 in bribes and taking a share of the money. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement that Russia had been amazed by his arrest, which it considered unnecessary for the investigation. "During the process and trial, the...

NEW YORK, March 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A jury in Manhattan federal court convicted Vladimir Kuznetsov of conspiring to commit money laundering, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia for the Southern District of New York announced today. The jury returned a guilty verdict after less than one hour of deliberation. Prior to his arrest in September 2005, Kuznetsov served as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions at the U.N. and was the highest-ranking Russian diplomat at the U.N. The evidence at trial proved that from 2000 through June 2005, Kuznetsov laundered over $300,000 in criminal proceeds obtained by...

Park Dong-sun, 72, who was indicted in the 1970s Koreagate scandal, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for his illegal lobbying activities on behalf of Iraq in the U.N.’s oil-for-food program. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said, “You acted out of greed and acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program.” Jurors in Federal District Court in Manhattan reached a verdict of guilty last July on whether Park received at least $2 million to lobby for Iraq.

NEW YORK - A South Korean businessman convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison. Tongsun Park was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Denny Chin for his conviction seven months ago on conspiracy charges. A jury had rejected his claims that he was a middleman representing the U.N.'s interests in relieving the pain of Iraqis under Saddam Hussein. The judge called it a "harsh" sentence for a 71-year-old man in poor health but said it was reasonable and appropriate under...

Met 'to investigate Galloway for taking cash from Saddam'Last updated at 10:27am on 14th February 2007 George Galloway is likely to be investigated by the Met Police over claims he broke US sanctions by receiving oil money from Saddam Hussein. The Serious Fraud Office has recommended that Scotland Yard open an investigation and talks are currently taking place with the Crown Prosecution Service. The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow has denied any impropriety and will not be investigated on separate offences of corruption. Under UN sanctions oil sales were only permitted for approved humanitarian purposes. To prosecute,...

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into allegations that a number of major UK-based firms paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. The firms being targeted include the drug giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly. The international oil traders and UK bridge-builders Mabey and Johnson are also to be investigated. They are on a long list of international companies accused in a UN report of paying kickbacks under the discredited oil-for-food sanctions regime, which enabled Saddam to illicitly amass an estimated $1.8bn. Ministers have agreed to fund the investigation with £22m over three years.

Excerpt - WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said on Tuesday. The money, which had been held by the United States, came from Iraqi oil exports, surplus dollars from the U.N.-run oil-for-food program and frozen assets belonging to the ousted Saddam Hussein regime. Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve, said Rep....

WASHINGTON - As a senior member of the House ethics committee, Rep. Jim McDermott (news, bio, voting record) had an obligation not to disclose the contents of an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders, a lawyer for one of the House Republicans said Thursday. Just as a federal judge should not reveal confidential information about a case, McDermott should not have given reporters access to the taped telephone call, regardless of how it was obtained, said lawyer Michael Carvin. "He had a duty not to disclose, therefore he can't claim First Amendment rights" allowing him to make the...

The former United Nations oil-for-food chief was charged Tuesday with bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the scandal-tainted humanitarian program. The charges against Benon Sevan, 69, of Nicosia, Cyprus, were contained in a rewrite of an indictment stemming from the scandal over the operation set up from 1996 to 2003 to permit the Iraqi government to sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for suffering Iraqis. The program was designed to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions, but authorities said it was corrupted by bureaucrats, oil tycoons and Saddam Hussein after the former Iraqi...

Per Fox News Alert: Benon Sevan indicted in New York court for his role (bribes, etc) in the UN oil for food scandal. Excellent! (no link yet)

Document CMPC-2004-003015 (pages 90-91-92) contain a letter dated May 1993 from Hussein Kamel Hassan the former head of the Iraqi Military Industrial Committee to Saddam Hussein regarding lifting the oil export embargo on Iraq. Kamel Hassan mentioned the name of “Samir Vincent” and Iraqi ex-pat living in the US and who according to the letter has good relation with the Iraqi regime for a long time and that Samir Vincent is helping the Iraqis to have the oil export embargo lifted through his contacts with the US State Department and the U.N. Also in the letter was mentioned the name...

On his way out the door, Kofi Annan has signed new rules meant to curb corruption in UN procurement activities, which since the Feds began investigating last year have been sprouting indictments and guilty pleas pertaining to the abuse of enormous amounts of taxpayer money on Kofi’s watch. It’s thoughtful of Kofi to bequeath brand new rules to his successor, Ban Ki-moon, who takes charge Jan. 1. But this leaves the question of why Kofi, who worked in the UN system for more than four decades, and spent much of that time deep in the nitty-gritty of UN personnel and...

Documents from an 18-month investigation into corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme will be legally transferred to the United Nations on January 1 to ensure safekeeping and will be made available to governments trying to prosecute alleged wrongdoers, the United Nations said. The voluminous archive was complied by the Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, whose final report in October 2005 accused more than 2,200 companies from some 40 countries of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to bilk the humanitarian programme in Iraq of USD 1.8 billion. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Kofi Annan...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Iraqi citizens filed a $200 million lawsuit Friday against a prominent European bank and an Australian wheat exporter, saying they were cheated out of humanitarian goods when the companies permitted the U.N. oil-for-food program to be corrupted. The lawsuit, which sought class-action status on behalf of northern Iraqis, said the bank, BNP Paribas, and AWB Limited, the largest humanitarian goods provider under the oil-for-food program, cheated the citizens of Iraq from June 10, 1999, to June 3, 2003. <-snip-> The lawsuit said the companies stole from the Iraqis ''by engaging in a brazen kickback scheme'' in...

US excludes AWB after Iraq probe AWB was the largest single supplier of humanitarian goods to Iraq Australia's wheat exporter AWB has been suspended from US government contracts and faces permanent exclusion, for paying bribes to Iraq's former regime.The step was taken "based on evidence of illicit activities", said US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. Last month, a judicial inquiry found AWB broke UN oil-for-food programme rules by paying Saddam Hussein $222m (£112m) to secure contracts. It also recommended that 11 former AWB executives face corruption charges. The high-profile commission inquiry, chaired by former judge Terence Cole, cleared the Australian...

United Nation's Chief Kofi Annan's Legacy of Failure by Nile Gardiner (December 16, 2006) http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4867 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered his swan song last week at the Truman Presidential Library in Missouri.[1] It was a thinly veiled parting shot at U.S. foreign policy delivered by an embittered U.N. leader seething with self-righteous indignation and resentment. Annan's Missouri speech will go down in history as one of the most blatant assaults on a U.S. administration by a serving U.N. official. In his condescending remarks, Annan warned, with Washington clearly in his sights, that "no nation can make itself secure...

http://imoa.us

Australia shows how a real Oil-for-Food investigation is done. ___ At United Nations headquarters, Secretary General Kofi Annan likes to imply that the Oil-for-Food era is over (“If there was a scandal” was his locution earlier this year). But Down Under, that landmark U.N. scam is right now all over the headlines. On Monday, Australia’s Cole commission released the findings of its year-long inquiry into some $220 million in kickbacks allegedly paid by the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) to Saddam Hussein’s U.N.-sanctioned regime under Oil-for-Food. In a nutshell, the inquiry has cleared the Howard government, but recommends pursuing possible criminal...

CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian inquiry on Monday recommended police pursue criminal charges against 12 business officials in connection with multimillion-dollar kickbacks that the country's monopoly wheat exporter paid under the U.N.'s Iraqi oil-for-food program. The report found no illegal activity by the Australian government. The royal commission's report into payments by the Australian Wheat Board said 11 of its officers might have breached Australian corporate law and a 12th executive employed by another company that had dealings with AWB might be guilty of criminal conspiracy. Prime Minister John Howard ordered the inquiry last year after an investigation by former...

U.N. Corruption Probe 'At Full Throttle' "The dominoes are beginning to fall," undersecretary-general for management Christopher Burnham told the Associated Press. "Anyone with information about corruption anywhere in the U.N. needs to come forward now before the dominoes reach them," he added.

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- French oil major Total SA's head of exploration and production Christophe de Margerie is being investigated by a French judge in a probe related to the scandal-plagued U.N. oil-for-food programme in Iraq. Margerie, who is due to succeed Thierry Desmarest as chief executive, was put under formal investigation by a French judge on Thursday after being held in custody for 48 hours in Paris and then released. In a statement released on Total's Web site on Thursday night the group said it would like to "reassure Mr de Margerie of its total support". Citigroup analysts said...

The United Nations has not done enough to reform its practices since the oil-for-food scandal, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker '49 told a Dodds Auditorium audience Thursday night. Volcker chaired an independent committee investigating the mid-1990s program, which allowed Iraq to sell its oil in exchange for food and medicine. Though the United Nations has devised an ethical code and new reporting standards, it has not embraced the extensive reforms the committee recommended to maintain the legitimacy of the body, Volker said. Volker was on campus to discuss the new book "Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Scandal and the...

Annan's financial form to be secret By Betsy PisikTHE WASHINGTON TIMESOctober 4, 2006 NEW YORK -- U.N. officials said yesterday that they will not publicly release a financial disclosure form filed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan last month -- 10 months after he ordered all senior U.N. officials to file the forms.     A spokesman said Mr. Annan submitted the questionnaire -- under a policy implemented in response to international outrage over U.N. involvement in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal -- on Sept. 22.     "The secretary-general has filed the forms," Stephane Dujarric confirmed yesterday. But, he said, "We will not be making it...

How effective were UN sanctions against Saddam ? Liberals say, "Very effective !" This cynic says otherwise. Read and draw your own conclusions.

FBI agents yesterday raided the suburban Detroit headquarters of LIFE for Relief and Development (LRD), the largest Islamic charity in the country. I first wrote about the group for The Post in 2003. Back then, FBI Director Robert Mueller was set to give an award to Imad Hamad, who heads the Midwest chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). But, after my Post article pointed out that Hamad was a subject in over a dozen terrorism-related investigations, the FBI revoked the award. One of those investigations concerned Hamad's close ties to LRD. Both the FBI and the then-U.S. Customs...

UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to fill out a newly minted U.N. financial disclosure form, rejecting advice of his inner circle that doing so would send a good signal as the U.N. seeks to counter allegations that it is closed to public scrutiny, U.N. officials said Thursday. The U.N. unveiled new rules last year that tightened staff financial disclosure requirements in effect since 1999. Annan is not required to fill out the form because he is technically not a staff member. Nonetheless, two U.N. officials told The Associated Press that several of Annan's top aides had recently urged...

PARIS -- "We are all Americans," France's Le Monde newspaper proclaimed on Sept. 12, 2001, speaking for millions worldwide in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Five years later, the respected daily carried a very different message Monday: Its lead editorial was titled "Bush's Mistakes." The paper's assessment five years ago reflected a collective shock and sympathy felt in France and many nations that has given way to a much more complex view of the United States since then, particularly after the war in Iraq. In its issue Monday, Le Monde called the war in Afghanistan...

The Justice RS Pathak Inquiry Authority, probing into allegations of payoffs in the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq, has indicted former external affairs minister K. Natwar Singh and his MLA son Jagat Singh for misusing their position. But the probe has found no evidence that the two received money. Pathak’s report has also exonerated the Congress of the charge that it received money in the procurement of contracts from Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Pathak, a former chief justice of India, submitted the 110-page report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. “I was entrusted with this responsibility and I...

When former US President Jimmy Carter kicked off his son’s campaign for the Senate, junior was being sent to the rescue, he said because of the "illegal" spying campaign by the Bush Administration. Jack "Chip" Carter, running against Republican Senator John Ensign, for the State of Nevada is the last one who needs anyone spying on him.

While the United Nations frames its next response to crisis in the Middle East, its last grand venture in that region--Oil for Food--has finally resulted in a guilty verdict in open court. Last Thursday, a high-rolling, globe-trotting South Korean businessman named Tongsun Park was convicted in the Southern District of New York of conspiracy to launder money and act as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Mr. Park's case is much entwined with the executive floor of the U.N. For years, he enjoyed extraordinary access to its top officials, complete (at least at one stage) with a U.N. grounds...