do I REALLY have to say it???
Posted on 08/04/2005 5:08:14 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
BENON Sevan, the former head of the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq, expects to be accused of getting money in oil deals, allegations his lawyer calls "entirely false" and without evidence.
In a lengthy statement, the lawyer, Eric Lewis, anticipated a report next Tuesday from a UN-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, led by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve Chairman.
The panel, Mr Lewis said, intends to say that Mr Sevan received money from a contractor, doing business with the $US67 billion ($86.96 billion) humanitarian program.
But the lawyer said, "The charge is categorically untrue and no evidence has been adduced to substantiate it".
The Volcker committee, in an interim report in February, accused Mr Sevan, a veteran UN employee from Cyprus, of a "grave conflict of interest" by allegedly soliciting oil allocations for a trading firm, African Middle East Petroleum, or AMEP, run by a relative of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Mr Sevan has denied he received any money for the transaction.
Separately, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, has opened a criminal investigation of Mr Sevan.
But Mr Lewis said Mr Sevan had no interest in that company or in any of the other companies associated with the program, and that the committee was basing its information on "undisclosed statements by officials of the former Saddam Hussein regime".
Well now, isn't this just a surprise???
hey are all thieves : )
do I REALLY have to say it???
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