Annan and Sevan
Turtle Bay 
BY BENNY AVNI
August 1, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/17884
When the Volcker committee delivers new findings on Benon Sevan later this week, the former oil-for-food director will be far away. According to U.N. diplomats and officials, Mr. Sevan has left Turtle Bay for his native Cyprus, despite the U.N. arrangement meant to assure his cooperation with oil-for-food investigations.
The upcoming interim report of the Independent Inquiry Committee, perfectly timed to elicit minimal attention with a Friday afternoon release, will address pointedly whether Mr. Sevan profited personally from the now-discredited program, an IIC spokesman, Michael Holtzman, told Reuters last week. It will also look into the actions of a U.N. procurement officer, Alexander Yakovlev.
In addition to the Volcker investigation, Mr. Sevan is currently the subject of an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau. In other words, as he lounges on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean, Mr. Sevan might have more than jellyfish to dodge.
Back in February, the Volcker committee laughed off Mr. Sevan's explanation that $160,000 found in his bank accounts was a gift from his late aunt, Berdjouchi Zeytountsian, who was a lifelong Cyprus government employee. According to London's Daily Telegraph, investigators are now probing Mr. Sevan's bank accounts around the world - in Cyprus, Turkey, and Switzerland. Mr. Volcker, who has no subpoena powers, might need Mr. Morganthau to gain access to these accounts.
Until now, Secretary-General Annan has kept Mr. Sevan immune from prosecution by maintaining his status as a United Nations employee, a substantial bonus over his symbolic $1-a-year salary. Mr. Annan's official explanation for preserving Mr. Sevan's diplomatic immunity - the need to assure Mr. Sevan's cooperation with oil-for-food investigators - is often bandied around at the United Nations.
The important point about him is that anyone who needs to have access to him has access to him, a U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said last week when asked why Mr. Sevan was allowed to go to Cyprus. The main responsibility that he has is to cooperate and be available to the Volcker commission. And until we hear otherwise from Mr. Volcker and his team, we assume that he is cooperating, Mr. Dujarric said.
Mr. Volcker, in fact, long ago said that Mr. Sevan's cooperation was less than stellar: The committee's February report cited evasions, untruths, and contradictions in his testimony. After a somewhat chaotic press conference on the occasion of that report's release, Mr. Volcker sent an e-mail to reporters, stressing that he was speaking only of Mr. Sevan when he said that a certain individual was not cooperating with the investigation.
Initial reaction by U.N. officials to the findings against Mr. Sevan last winter recalled Claude Rains in Casablanca - they were shocked, shocked. Mr. Annan actually used that word to describe his feelings. Nevertheless, he refrained from punishing Mr. Sevan. The secretary-general even promised to pay his longtime aide's mounting legal fees, and hid that promise from the public. An about-face was made only after The New York Sun reported on Mr. Sevan's legal reimbursement arrangement.
By comparison, another U.N. official, Joseph Stephanides, was accused by Mr. Volcker of committing a much more minor violation of staff rules. The report explicitly noted that Mr. Stephanides has not gained personally from his alleged misdeed, and to me, at least, his repeated denials of any wrongdoing make a lot of sense. Unlike Mr. Sevan, however, Mr. Stephanides was summarily fired before being allowed to relate his side of the story to the world body.
If, as expected, the Volcker committee findings on Mr. Sevan this Friday fall short of a full exoneration, Mr. Annan will have to change course. Furthermore, Mr. Morgenthau might at one point decide to indict Mr. Sevan. In that case, Mr. Annan might even have to fulfill his vow to remove the diplomatic immunity of anyone accused of criminal activity.
The Volcker committee plans to defer to a later date all remaining questions about Mr. Annan's own role in the scandal. In a recent interview with a German newspaper, a Swiss law professor and ranking Volcker committee member, Mark Pieth, said that future findings will have dire consequences for the United Nations and for the position of the secretary-general.
As investigators get closer, Mr. Annan's tendency to treat Mr. Sevan with kid gloves will become increasingly difficult to maintain. If so, will Mr. Sevan next turn on his former boss?