U.S. Man Charged in Oil-For-Food Probe
Iraqi-Born U.S. Citizen Charged in Investigation of U.N.'s Oil-For-Food Program
The Associated Press
Jan. 18, 2005 - An Iraqi-American conspired to act as an agent for Saddam Hussein by accepting millions of dollars in compensation and negotiating with U.N. officials to let Iraq sell oil despite international sanctions, authorities said Tuesday. 
The charges were the first to be revealed in the probe of allegations that administrators in the United Nations oil-for-food program took bribes and let the ousted Iraqi dictator skim money from the program.
Samir A. Vincent was charged in a criminal information in U.S. District Court, where a grand jury has been looking into the program. In announcing the charges, prosecutors said Saddam's government demanded secret surcharges worth several hundred million dollars as it managed the program with the help of the United Nations.
The $60 billion oil-for-food effort was created as a humanitarian exemption to sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the first Gulf War. Beginning in 1996, it let Saddam's government sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other items.
According to court papers against Vincent that were signed by U.S. Attorney David N. Kelley, the Iraqi government from at least 2000 and until March 2003 conditioned the distribution of allocations of oil under the program on the recipients' willingness to pay a secret surcharge to the Iraqi government.
Under the program, Saddam's government alone had the power to select the companies and individuals who received the rights to purchase Iraqi oil, the court papers said.
Officials at the highest levels of the Iraqi government selected a group of companies and individuals to receive the rights to buy Iraqi oil.
The court papers portrayed the program as a money machine for Saddam's regime, which allegedly stashed the cash in various Middle East countries and elsewhere.
The court papers said Vincent was born in Iraq in 1940 and later became a U.S. citizen.
They said he was never a duly accredited diplomatic or consular officer of a foreign government.
Yet, according to the court papers, between 1993 and January 2003 Vincent consulted with and repeatedly received direction from Saddam's government to lobby officials of the U.S. government and the United Nations to repeal sanctions against Iraq.
They further alleged that Vincent between 1992 and early 1996 met in Manhattan with U.N. officials and others to secure terms favorable to the government of Iraq to sell Iraqi oil.
In February 1996, Vincent went to Baghdad and helped draft agreements with Iraqi government officials that guaranteed millions of dollars in compensation for himself and others once an agreement to sell Iraqi oil was obtained, the papers said.
Between February 1996 and July 1997, the government or Iraq delivered millions of dollars in cash to Vincent and others, prosecutors alleged.
The court papers alleged as well that Vincent followed the direction of Iraq between 1998 and January 2003 when he lobbied former officials of the U.S. government in an unsuccessful effort to persuade the United States to support a repeal of sanctions against Iraq.
For his efforts, Vincent and a company under his control were awarded the rights to buy about 9 million barrels of oil under the oil-for-food program, the court papers said.
They added that Vincent reaped millions of dollars of profits by selling to an oil company the rights to purchase that Iraqi oil.
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