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August 14, 2005 -- LONDON — The $21.3 billion United Nations oil-for-food scandal has now widened to include the brother of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Kobina Annan, the Ghanaian ambassador to Morocco, is said by investigators to be "connected" to an African businessman at the center of the scandal. The probe into Kobina's dealings are at an early stage and he has not been interviewed. However, investigators are understood to suspect that Michael Wilson, an African businessman, and Kobina had a business relationship at the time of the scandal. A source close to the investigation said: "We believe Kobina Annan...

THE UN Secretary-General has used his end-of-year press conference to lash out at the media in general, and The Times in particular, for their coverage of the Oil-for-Food scandal and his role in it. Kofi Annan singled out James Bone, New York correspondent of The Times, after he questioned Mr Annan about a Mercedes jeep that his son, Kojo, imported into Ghana using his father’s diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes. Kojo Annan worked for a Swiss firm, Cotecna, that won a lucrative UN contract to monitor those imports. Mr Annan told reporters that they had focused unduly on himself and...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan lashed out at the media after a year of unrelenting attacks on the United Nations and criticism of his management of the $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq, calling one critic "an overgrown schoolboy." He criticized reporters Wednesday for what he said was unfair coverage of his role in the oil-for-food program and insisted reporters missed the big story. That, he said, was the more than 2,200 companies and invididuals from some 40 countries that paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges to Saddam Hussein's government to get contracts. An 18-month investigation led by former U.S....

Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, lied about what he knew of his son's business activities at the time of the Iraq oil-for-food programme, according to the senior investigator charged with examining his conduct. A report published by the US Congress also alleges that senior members of the UN's separate Volcker inquiry into the programme resisted printing any conclusion which might have forced Mr Annan's resignation. When the UN report on Mr Annan's conduct was published nine months ago, it stated that there was no evidence that Mr Annan had misbehaved. The inquiry examined the employment of...

As Paul Volcker put the finishing touches last week on his final report on the U.N.'s role in the oil-for-food scandal, investigators continue to uncover details about Kojo Annan's links with Cotecna, the company at the center of the influence-peddling inquiry. In late 1998, U.N. sources say, Kojo, son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, got a $3,000 loan from a friend for a down payment on a sporty green Mercedes ML 320 in Geneva, Switzerland. The friend was Michael Wilson, then a vice president of Cotecna, the firm that not only employed Kojo but also won millions of dollars in...

NEW YORK — As investigations proliferate into the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal, one of the more intriguing mysteries involves a former French diplomat with a direct link to the U.N.’s executive suite: Jean-Bernard Merimee (search). The 68-year-old Merimee, one of several individuals now under investigation in France for alleged involvement in Saddam Hussein’s Oil-for-Food scams, is well known for his role in the early 1990s as French ambassador to the United Nations. What investigators have not so far highlighted is that during the period Merimee is alleged to have come into commercial contact with Saddam’s regime, starting in December 2001,...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) faces new questions over whether he lied to independent investigators probing the scandal-scarred Oil-for-Food program. Those investigators said Tuesday they were "urgently reviewing" fresh evidence. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159532,00.html

The Iraq oil-for-food inquiry is reviewing new information about the UN secretary-general's alleged links with a firm hired to monitor the programme. A memo by Swiss firm Cotecna published this week describes a meeting between Kofi Annan and its executives in 1998, weeks before the contract was awarded. Mr Annan has denied prior knowledge of Cotecna's bid for the contract, though his son worked there as a consultant. A previous inquiry report found that the UN head had not helped Cotecna.

Memo Seems to Link Annan to Contract of Son's Company By JUDITH MILLER A memo written by someone who was then an executive of a major contractor in the United Nations oil-for-food program states that he briefly discussed the company's effort to win the contract in late 1998 with Secretary General Kofi Annan and his "entourage" and that the executive was told that "we could count on their support." The secretary general's son, Kojo Annan, was employed by Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss contractor based in Geneva, and the nature of that relationship is among the issues being investigated by...

US seeks probe of bribery allegations at UN agency By Frances Williams in Geneva Published: April 29 2005 20:31 | Last updated: April 29 2005 20:31 The US has called for a full investigation by the World Intellectual Property Organisation into allegations of bribery concerning the award of a SFr70m contract for a building renovation project. The allegations, which are being examined by a Geneva judge, centre on Michael Wilson, a Ghanaian businessman and former vice-president of Cotecna, the Swiss-based inspection company implicated in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal. The case is the latest controversy to blight the UN after...

“The Interpreter”: Sean Penn’s U.N. Mash Note April 22, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel The last time I wrote about Jeff Spicoli a/k/a Sean Penn, he sent me an e-mail calling me the c-word. In the past, Penn reportedly shot reporters with a squirt gun filled with his urine, so I got off easy. Classy guy. I critiqued Penn’s absurd interview in the thankfully defunct Talk Magazine. It was just months after 9/11, and Spicoli was deluded from smoking too much pot, again. He didn’t just insist that President Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Howard Stern, and Bill O’Reilly were as bad as...

The long-awaited Volcker report into corruption in the United Nations' oil-for-food program paints a damning picture of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, despite high-level spin within the UN that the report actually vindicates him of wrongdoing. The report has a distinct connect-the-dots quality to it. At first glance, it doesn't really come out and condemn Annan. But Volcker has clearly invited the international community to connect the dots for itself, and draw its own conclusions about Annan, as well as his suitability to continue as secretary-general. Maybe that's because former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, the report's author, thinks that...

The Smoking Guns in the Oil for Food Scandal: Kofi Annan, Kojo Annan and Benon Sevan Are in All The Wrong Places at All the Wrong Times Volcker Report Accepts the Unacceptable When it Comes to ‘Amazing Coincidences’ as Alibis (SACRAMENTO) – As reported by Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org), today’s report by Paul Volcker and the Independent Inquiry Committee investigation the U.N. Oil for Food program ill advisably jumps to conclusions that absolve the U.N. and Kofi Annan of corruption and wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The Volcker report contains disturbing new information on how Kojo...

Annan 'will sacrifice son to save himself' By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 29/03/2005) Kofi Annan, the beleaguered United Nations secretary general, is expected to sacrifice his son's reputation today as he fights to save his own position after a damaging report into a family conflict of interest. The long-awaited report by the commission set up to investigate the scandal-hit oil-for-food programme for Iraq, will criticise the UN leader for a series of management failings. Mr Annan: ‘exasperated’ by Kojo's behaviour In particular, he will be accused of failing to recognise or deal with conflicts of interest involving the work...

KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo’s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme. Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son. American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and...

KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo’s connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme. Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son. American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and...

Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, received at least $300,000 from Cotecna, a Swiss inspection company awarded a contract ultimately worth about $60m under the Iraqi oil-for-food contract. The amount was almost double the sum previously disclosed, but payments were arranged in ways that obscured where the money came from or whom it went to. The discovery, in a joint investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, and the Financial Times, comes as the independent UN inquiry led by Paul Volcker into possible abuses within the oil-for-food programme prepares to publish a new report...

After being caught up in a bribery scandal in Pakistan and losing a big contract in Nigeria, Cotecna, a Geneva-based company that inspects exports and imports, was keen for new business. One of the people it was counting on for help was Kojo Annan, who had been employed by the company since autumn 1995, working in Lagos. His father, Kofi, had recently been appointed secretary-general of the United Nations. The organisation was disbursing tens of millions of dollars under the oil-for-food programme, designed for Iraq to buy food and medicines with revenues from the sale of crude oil. “They were...

While United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was patently ignoring a President Robert Mugabe oppressed Zimbabwe, his son, Kojo was making money building the Zimbabwean capitol’s airport. Mugabe runs the ZANU-PF, a regime that Condoleeza Rice labels an outpost of tyranny. Why Kojo Annan’s business activities in Zimbabwe have not surfaced in the ongoing probe of the Oil-For-Food Program should surely raise concern about both the integrity and sincerity of the investigation. It’s a global village as far as Kojo’s business agenda is concerned. First came West Africa where Annan’s youngest son was working for the Swiss-based Cotecna with ties...