Benon Sevan Indicted in NY (Oil for Food Scandal)

Fox News Alert | 01-16-2007

[KJC1]

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)

[hophead]

Its about frikin time.

[edpc]

He's not in the country and is probably not subject to extradition. It means little, unfortunately.

[AdvisorB]

I think kofi is quaking in his little boots.

[popdonnelly]

Doesn't he have diplomatic immunity?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Is Kofi still in the US ? Thought he was headed for Switzerland to be closer to his money.

[highlander_UW]

Hopefully this will lead to the arrest and prosecution of Kofi as well...he's at least as dirty as Sevan.

[Ben Hecks]

Excellent! Interesting that this comes right after Kofi Annan's departure with ringing praises and flowers strewn at his feet. I hope that Annan and and all of the other co-conspirators are brought to justice - we will probably never know the full extent of their crimes.

[jiggyboy]

He better learn how to say "no thanks, I'll take the steps" in many languages.

[AdvisorB]

Wouldn't it be nice if the prosecutors could get their hands on Sevan? I think he would sing like a love-struck canary. What did little kofi know, and when did he know it? Did kofi's financial dealings with saddam and his baathists interfere with kofi's duties and solemn obligations as the Secretary General of the UN? And how much of a kickback did kofi get from the kickbacks pocketed by Sevan?

I think we have an extradition treaty with Switzerland, since they are charter members of the EU, I believe. Wouldn't it be nice to see him extradited in an orange jumpsuit, and handcuffed to a federal marshall?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Too bad it won't happen.

[Quick Shot]

Don't think Switzerland is EU??? Maybe wrong

[Quick Shot]

EU Countries
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom

[mewzilla]

FYI ping :)

Hope he stays out of buildings with elevators.

[Sacajaweau]

I forgot. Is this Kofi's son??

[syriacus]

I think Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped aid worker in Iraq, whose body was never found, might have been able to shed light on this scandal. She would have been in a position to know that UN humanitarian aid was not getting to the Iraqi people.

Most of the women who were taken hostage were released, but Margaret was not. Whether she is alive, or dead, it seems she will not be testifying.

[FlyVet]

Additional reference with interesting background history from Claudia Rosett at Pajamas Media. She interviewed Sevan.

http://claudiarosett.pajamasmedia.com/2007/01/16/benon_sevan_indicted.php

Concerning the global extravaganza of graft that was the United Nations Oil-for-Food program, Kofi Annan’s line was to blame everyone but the UN itself.

“If there was a scandal,” was how he tried to spin it when asked about corruption in his own secretariat. Apparently, U.S. federal prosecutors see it differently. This morning, jointly with the Manhattan DA’s office, they announced the indictment in New York’s Southern District of Annan’s handpicked head of the former Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan, on charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Also charged is Ephraim Nadler (a.k.a. “Fred Nadler”), a brother-in-law of former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. If that sounds like the UN might be prone to problems at the top, keep going. The web of fathers-sons-sisters-brothers-and-wives is stunning; and there is of course the mystery of the death of Benon Sevan’s pensioner aunt, whom Sevan claimed was the source of the $160,000 that the Feds allege he took in Oil-for-Food pay-offs, and who perished after falling into the elevator shaft of her Cyprus apartment block, just as Oil-for-Food investigations were taking shape in early 2004.

Sevan, who denies any wrong-doing, slipped out of New York in 2005, but has been living in plain sight on Cyprus, where I found him settled into his late aunt’s penthouse apartment when I paid a surprise visit there last March.

This indictment comes nine years after Sevan allegedly took his first payoff on Oil-for-Food deals, and follows years in which top UN officials denied, stonewalled, dismissed and in some cases lied about the extent of abuse within the UN itself. Billions in taxpayer dollars, as well as enormous amounts of trust, are lavished on this institution by our own government. The question today is not only whether Sevan, now facing an Interpol warrant, might decide to cooperate with the laws of the U.S., where — while working at UN headquarters in New York — he is alleged to have banked stacks of Iraq-begotten cash. The larger questions are why Annan and his top aides and advisers felt they could with impunity deflect blame from their own failings and from the UN itself, and why, apart from perhaps Sevan, they have gotten away with it."

Hmmmmm...Mr. Benon's old Auntie takes a step into the elevator shaft...And now he lives in her apartment? How conveeeeeenient....how weird...how Clintonesque...I'm sure it's just a coincidence....I'm sure that Mr. Sevan will get an oh-so-painful slap on the wrist. Why, he might even get stuck with community service over this outrage!

[KJC1]

Thanks for posting that piece.

And yes, the "falling down the elevator shaft" never quite sat right.

[Rosemont]

one down several to go.

[aShepard]

Well, at least he knows that he will have to wait at least two years before he gets a presidential pardon; aka Marc Rich!