U.N. HONCHO GUILTY IN $1M GREASE JOB 
By LUKAS I. ALPERT 
August 9, 2005
In a bombshell development in the oil-for-food scandal, a U.N. official who doled out lucrative contracts pleaded guilty yesterday to soliciting a $1 million bribe. 
The surprise plea by Alexander Yakovlev — the first U.N. big shot to be charged — came following the waiving of his diplomatic immunity by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 
Annan stripped Yakovlev's immunity after the release of a damning report by the Independent Inquiry Committee, headed by Paul Volcker, which is looking at massive corruption in the program. 
Yakovlev, 52, who had been involved in disbursing U.N. contracts dating back to 1993, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy, wire fraud and money-laundering charges. 
The Russian native faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, U.S. Attorney David Kelley said. 
We decided that it's in the best interest of the client to enter such a plea, said Yakovlev's lawyer, Arkady Bukh. In terms of sentencing, we expect a much better deal if we enter a guilty plea. 
Yakovlev emerged earlier in the day as a key figure in the corruption probe, when Volcker released his third report. It detailing how Yakovlev had been wired $950,000 in bribes, sent to an offshore account in Antigua, since 2000. 
Those bribes, which were not connected to the oil-for-food program, came from companies that had won $79 million in U.N. contracts. 
That evidence emerged as investigators probed a 1996 contract bid where Yakovlev pressured a Swiss company into ponying up a bribe for an oil-monitoring contract that was directly tied to the program. 
That bribe appears never to have been paid, officials said. 
Volcker also said investigators are taking another look at a 1998 oil contract awarded under Yakovlev's watch to Cotecna — a company for which Annan's son, Kojo, worked. 
Yakovlev resigned from the United Nations in mid-June, following a report that he had helped his own son get a job with a firm that once did business with the world body. 
Before the report was released, most observers anticipated the most interesting information would be on former U.N. oil-for-food chief Benon Sevan. Much of the report focused on how Sevan, who resigned from the United Nations Sunday, allegedly took more than $147,000 in kickbacks from an oil company that received a contract under the $64 billion program. 
The committee also recommended Annan lift Sevan's immunity, but a U.N. spokesman said only that the world body was cooperating with authorities in Sevan's case.