[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Oil-for-Food Scandal******AMEP still exists on registry documents in Monaco, but Mr. Abdelnour confirmed that the office there on Boulevard Princesse Charlotte closed two years ago. Intriguingly, the same building in Monaco houses another oil company, Toro Energy SAM, whose owner and a key business partner both figure prominently on the Al Mada list: oil industry specialist Cabecadas Rui de Sousa and Frenchman Patrick Maugein. (Mr. Abdelnour says he does not know either man). Mr. Maugein, a billionaire with close ties to Jacques Chirac, is a longtime associate of the trader and former fugitive Marc Rich, who fled to Europe in 1983 to avoid answering charges of racketeering, illegal trading and dodging a tax-bill of $48 million. (Mr. Rich was pardoned by Bill Clinton in his final hours in the White House). Mr. Maugein was also a close contact of Tariq Aziz, with whom he met regularly. He is the non-executive chairman of Soco International PLC, a publicly listed London-based petroleum exploration/production company, which goes into markets the majors tend to skip--Mongolia, Vietnam, North Korea, Libya and Yemen.***

…………….One prominent former employee of Cotecna is Kojo Annan, Kofi Annan's son by his first marriage. The young Mr. Annan was employed by Cotecna in the mid-1990s. He reportedly continued a consultancy relationship with Cotecna through his Nigerian-based company.

Philip Henebry, Cotecna's CFO, confirmed that Kojo Annan had been employed there, but would not confirm any dates. Asked how Cotecna was able to underbid competitors on the Iraq contract by as much as half, he replied that "We felt that the margins with competitors were very, very high. Originally the contract was for short periods and we worked on the assumption it would be renewed." ***

[Quilla]

Whew! My initial take when reading this headline was the UN would NOT investigate the oil for food program. An inquiry is certainly needed, but I don't feel the UN will be honest and forthcoming in implicating itself. I trust them about as far as I can throw their useless building.

Great information about Marc Rich, CW. No wonder Clinton has been vying for Secretary General. You'd think that left leaning little pr!ck would have enough money to satisfy him by now.

[BikePacker]

John Kerry would have us defer to this corrupt cabal.

[samtheman]

UN official Benon Sevan Iraq's new governing council has hired the accountants KPMG and the international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, to investigate claims that large sums of money - which should have been spent on food and medicine for ordinary Iraqis - were diverted through oil "vouchers" to line pockets abroad.

So who is KPMG and who owns them?

I'm not impressed.

Call in the FBI. Or the NYPD.

Then I'll believe it.

[samtheman]

Definitely bring in the NYPD. Serve them a summons. Issue them a fine. A big whopping super-fine (enough to cover NYC budget deficits). And when they don't pay (they won't, of course), kick them out of the city.

Retake that building. Put that real-estate to some good use for a change.

[RunningJoke]

DUDE: They figure it's easy money, it's all pretty harmless. I mean the UN members are taking bribes from dictators.

WALTER: Huh?

DONNY: What do you mean, Dude?

DUDE: Haliburton did not do this. I mean look at it. Third world mugs get a cushy job in the UN. They figure they're not getting enough money.

WALTER: That...fricking...scum!

DUDE: It's all a darn fake. Like Lenin said, look for the person who will benefit. And you will, uh, you know, you'll, uh, you know what I'm trying to say--

DUDE: Yeah, well, what do you care, Walter?

DONNY: Yeah Dude, why is Walter so pissed off?

WALTER: Those UN scumbags! This whole fricking thing--

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Heard Newt on Fox addressing this issue. Potentially, explosive but I'll be surprised if it develops legs. These are lefty crooks, after all.

[DoctorMichael]

Bttt

[CasearianDaoist]

This shall be fun to watch.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Good morning, CW.

Great article. Thank you.

I think our own crooked congresspimps can relate vicariously to a lot of this.

[kcvl]

bttt

[GailA]

Added to MASTER LIST OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM SCANDAL

[Lion in Winter]

Wonder if the TIDES FOUNDATION funded any "charities" who was involved with getting "food" into Iraq?

[backhoe]

-"No Blood for Oil"- Kojo & Kofi: Unbelievable U.N. stories--

[Gritty]

Big Deal.

So, they can investigate it until the cows come home. The real score card proof will be:

a. How many give the money back
b. How many get fired
c. How many go to jail
d. How many get fined
e. none of the above

The answer will no doubt be "e".

[Wil H]

It would be intersting to know if the likes of Sean Pen have been dabling in Iraqi oil trading, wouldn't it?

Perhaps the word got around Hollywood, "Hey, just show up in Iraqi, off a few words of support, and bingo! you get a voucher to "help" the Iraqi people get fed ..

[Grampa Dave]

When the UN investigates itself for criminal behavior, that is similiar to having the mafia investigate itself for criminal behavior.

[Grampa Dave]

Hold your excitement.

The UN is about to investigate itself re the Oil for Food Scam that made some many UNers rich.

[JoeFromSidney]

I'm afraid this is just one more scandal that will disappear from the liberal press, just like Bill Clinton's scandals disappeared. After all, if people realized Hussein was using oil money to bribe world leaders, they just might think it was a good idea to get rid of him.