February 15, 2005
U.N. Oil-for-Food Chief Faces Fresh Charges
By JUDITH MILLER 
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - The Senate subcommittee on investigations says it has documents showing that the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food aid program may have made as much as $1.2 million personally from illegal oil shipments by Iraq.
The officials said in a briefing on Capitol Hill late Monday that they based the conclusion on documents written by the Iraqi Oil Ministry under Saddam Hussein and on reports prepared for the new oil minister after Mr. Hussein was overthrown in 2003. A subcommittee hearing about the oil-for-food program is to take place on Tuesday.
An independent investigation led by Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has already accused the former United Nations official, Benon V. Sevan, of a serious conflict of interest. That panel said Mr. Sevan had solicited Iraqi oil for a friend whose company, African Middle East Petroleum, received several oil allocations from the Iraqi government. But it did not find that Mr. Sevan personally benefited from illicit oil exports.
Our evidence suggests that Sevan may have engaged in more serious misconduct, the Senate investigators conclude in a paper. Specifically, they say, previously undisclosed Iraqi Oil Ministry documents specifically cite Mr. Sevan, and not his friend's company, as the recipient of oil vouchers for as much as $1.2 million from the program. 
Mr. Sevan has denied any wrongdoing in previous statements. He did not respond to messages left by telephone and e-mail at his office on Monday. 
If Mr. Sevan benefited from the allocations, the investigators said, he might have violated American laws banning the use of mail or telephones for fraudulent purposes and the smuggling of large amounts of cash into the country, as well as criminal conspiracy laws, and customs and border protection statutes.
The oil-for-food program, which ended in 2003, was a $65 billion aid effort intended to let Mr. Hussein's government sell some oil in order to buy aid goods to alleviate suffering because of international sanctions. But evidence since then has shown that Mr. Hussein manipulated the program to divert about $1.7 billion.
The Senate investigators, who briefed reporters on the condition that they not be identified, also said Monday that the documents raise questions about the actions of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general. 
Kojo Annan worked as a contractor for Cotecna Inspection, a Swiss-based company that won a contract in late 1998 to inspect aid goods purchased under the oil for food program. While he has maintained that his role at the company had nothing to do with the program, the Senate investigators said they found it troublesome that he did not account for his actions during a two-week business trip to New York in September 1998, before Cotecna's oil-for-food contract was announced. He had filed detailed trip reports for previous business travel, they said. 
He has maintained that he was developing contacts for prospective business in Africa for the company. 
Documents distributed Monday indicated that Kojo Annan had told Cotecna's chief executive months before the awarding of the contract that he had put in place a machinery in New York that would be of a global nature and would assist in development of new contacts for the future.
The investigators said that neither the company nor Mr. Annan's son, whom they interviewed in London last Friday, could explain what he meant by that statement. Both Cotecna and Mr. Annan have denied any wrongdoing or conflict of interest in the awarding of the inspection contract to Cotecna.
Finally, the Senate investigators released documents showing that the Iraqi oil ministry claimed to have paid over $100,000 to a Portuguese inspector who was employed by Saybolt International, a Dutch company that monitored oil exports under the program. The investigators said they had determined that the inspector was Armando Carlos Oliveira. 
Mr. Oliveira could not be reached for comment on Monday. But John Denson, Saybolt's general counsel, said Mr. Oliveira had denied any wrongdoing. He said that an earlier investigation by Saybolt had produced no evidence that its inspectors had permitted unauthorized oil shipments, and that it was conducting a new inquiry after learning from press reports last fall that one of its inspectors may have taken a bribe.