Posted on 04/18/2005 4:17:22 PM PDT by Shermy
Envoy Admits Ties With S. Korea Business
A prominent Canadian businessman and envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged ties Monday with a South Korean businessman who has been accused of wrongdoing in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.
Maurice Strong, Annan's special adviser for North Korea, said in a statement that he has "continued to maintain a relationship" with Tongsun Park and that Park invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997.
The statement did not identify the company and Strong could not immediately be reached for comment. U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Strong was in the Dominican Republic recovering from an illness.
Park was charged Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office with allegedly accepting millions of dollars from the Iraqi government while he operated in the United States as an unregistered agent for Baghdad.
Strong said Park, a native of North Korea, had advised him on Korean issues. The Canadian denied any involvement in the oil-for-food program.
"Indeed I cannot recall a single instance in which I had any contact or discussion on the program with any of the officials responsible," Strong said. ADVERTISEMENT
Park was accused of telling a government witness in 1995 that he needed millions of dollars from Iraq to "take care" of his expenses and his people. The witness believed that that meant a person identified in court papers only as "U.N. Official No. 1."
In 1996, another high-ranking U.N. official attended a restaurant meeting with Park, an Iraqi official and the government witness. After "U.N. Official 2" left, Park allegedly claimed that he had used a $5 million guarantee from the Iraqi government to fund business dealings with "U.N. Official 2," court papers said.
There was no hint in Strong's statement about whether he is "U.N. Official 2."
Strong had been involved in U.N. environment and development issues since 1970, and in January 1997, was appointed a senior adviser to Annan on reforming the United Nations.
He was also a former adviser to the president of the World Bank and has led several power companies in Canada, including Petro-Canada, Ontario Hydro and the Power Corporation of Canada.
Park told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million that he received from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of "U.N. Official 2," though the company failed and the money was lost.
In his statement, Strong said he is willing to give any further information to investigators "so as to have this cloud removed as soon as possible."
The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It let the Iraqi government sell limited _ and eventually unlimited _ amounts of oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods.
But Saddam chose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods. In a bid to end the sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for oil to be resold at a profit.
Park's name had surfaced in the media many years before.
In the 1970s, he was at the center of what became known as the "Koreagate" scandals in which he was accused of trying to buy influence in Congress.
The indictment against Park says that Park arranged a meeting with "U.N. Official 1" and two Iraqi officials in Geneva around June 1993.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the U.N. secretary-general at the time, was in Geneva in June 1993 with some U.N. staff for a meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
They discussed Baghdad's reluctant compliance with cease-fire terms from the first Gulf War.
ping.
? Canadian,....NAFTA..... Envoy Admits Ties With S. Korea Businessman (Food for Oil)?
"Park told the government witness in 1997 or 1998 that he had invested about $1 million that he received from Iraq in a Canadian company established by the son of "U.N. Official 2," though the company failed and the money was lost."
Could be Kojo? Or Strong's son - any oil schemes in Costa Rica?
Strong is the enviro-psycho behind the Kytoto Protocol.
Thanks! Fascinating. That Tongsun Park connection is getting more interesting by the day.
"Strong is the enviro-psycho behind the Kytoto Protocol."
ONe of those top enviros smart enough to make it sound good for pollution...but it's mostly a money/tax laundering scheme.
ping.
Strong more likely may have acted as middleman
for the 'high UN officials'.
I understand many of Boutros Ghali's relatives have fared quite well.
Though I doubt Kojo Annan was around at the time.
I knew his name sounded familiar!
I see that Strong "orchestrated" the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.
Isn't that where John Kerry met Teresa?
An energy company. Hmmmmm...oil....hmmmmm.
It was looted?
"It was looted?"
Looted?
the $1 million was probably UN Official No. 2's draw.
ping
The Chretien Liberals and Marinite Liberals are starting to turn on one another
That's looting in my book.
Hot off the airwaves:
According to John Loftus
on the John Batchelor Show WABC
Tongsun Park has agreed to come back to the USA to testify.
If he talks he gets a get out of jail free card.
Kelley wants the 'big players'.
Boutros Ghali
and
Maurice Strong
whose son ran a company
in which Park was an investor.
are the two UN officials named.
The pigeons are coming home to roost. Chretiens sudden turnabout on Iraq is now starting to take shape. The Liberal scandals now going on will track back to food for oil in my humble opinion. GWB knows this as well.
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