Oil-For-Food: Mr. Sevan's Aunt
Benon Sevan, one of two UN officials already facing charges in Oil-for-Food (O-F-F), comes off, appropriately, as quite an oily and well fed guy in the Interim Report of the UN's O-F-F Independent Inquiry Commission.
The report raises suspicions he received $160,000 in kickbacks between 1999 to 2003, the years he was running O-F-F. Coincidentally, but not pointed out by the report, that's roughly 10 percent of the money his friend and probable kick-backer Fakhry Abdelnour of African Middle East Petroleum Co. (AMEP) made off of oil contracts during the period. The Report makes it clear that Abdelnour would have received no O-F-F oil contracts were it not for Sevan's influence.
Sevan says he got the $160,000 from a rich aunt, in four payments ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. Here's what the Report says of Sevan's aunt:
The investigation is hampered by inability to subpoena internationally, so it may never find it all, but it is almost certainly much, much more than $160,000. The Report makes it clear there were other ways to make money, like overpaying for substandard aid shipments and pocketing the difference, and Sevan was in a position to profit from that kind of corruption as well.
Bad enough that he skimmed oil profits. But if he facilitated the shipment of substandard relief to hungry families in Iraq so he could line his pockets ... well, we don't need it, but we have yet another definition of evil.
The report raises suspicions he received $160,000 in kickbacks between 1999 to 2003, the years he was running O-F-F. Coincidentally, but not pointed out by the report, that's roughly 10 percent of the money his friend and probable kick-backer Fakhry Abdelnour of African Middle East Petroleum Co. (AMEP) made off of oil contracts during the period. The Report makes it clear that Abdelnour would have received no O-F-F oil contracts were it not for Sevan's influence.
Sevan says he got the $160,000 from a rich aunt, in four payments ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. Here's what the Report says of Sevan's aunt:
Mr. Sevan claimed in these [UN financial reporting] forms that his money came from his elderly aunt (now deceased) [how convenient] , who lived in Cyprus. Her lifestyle did not suggest this to be so. She was a retired Cyprus government photographer, living on a modest pension, for about twenty years. During her retirement, she lived in a small, plain two-bedroom apartment in Cyprus, which had been purchased by Mr. Sevan. According to a longtime family friend, she never had shown signs of having access to large amounts of cash ...How much did Sevan steal? The Report states, "The full scope and extent of benefits received by Mr. Sevan as a result of his solicitation of oil allocations for AMEP is under continuing investigation."
The investigation is hampered by inability to subpoena internationally, so it may never find it all, but it is almost certainly much, much more than $160,000. The Report makes it clear there were other ways to make money, like overpaying for substandard aid shipments and pocketing the difference, and Sevan was in a position to profit from that kind of corruption as well.
Bad enough that he skimmed oil profits. But if he facilitated the shipment of substandard relief to hungry families in Iraq so he could line his pockets ... well, we don't need it, but we have yet another definition of evil.
posted by Laer at 11:51 PM
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