Jury Hears Closing Arguments in Park Casehttp://view.atdmt.com/ORG/view/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/direct;at.orgfxs00000913/01/ \* MERGEFORMATINET
July 13, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Oil-For-Food.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- A South Korean businessman accused of being an Iraqi agent and trying to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program joined a conspiracy to lift economic sanctions against Iraq, a prosecutor said.
In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Miller said Tongsun Park tried to keep his associations with Iraqis secret as he arranged to receive millions of dollars in cash to influence top U.N. officials, including former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
''We're not talking about France or Mexico here,'' Miller told jurors Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. ''Saddam Hussein's government was an international pariah.''
Park's lawyer, Michael Kim, said the government's claims that Park, 71, acted as an unregistered agent for Iraq in the mid-1990s ''defies common sense.'' Kim urged the jury not to convict his client just because the circumstances -- such as his ties to the U.N. -- are suspicious.
An independent panel concluded last year that Iraq had a scheme to bribe Boutros-Ghali but found no evidence the secretary-general was aware of the plot or received the money.
Miller said Park provided the conspiracy with high-level connections within the United Nations while Samir A. Vincent, an Iraqi-American, kept in touch with Iraqi leaders. The men are suspected of wanting to help lift sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990 to receive a big payday from the Iraqi government.
The prosecutor said Park ''lied in every possible way'' when he spoke with FBI agents in December 2004.
Kim told jurors Park was not an Iraqi agent, never conspired to help Iraqi agents and did not think he was violating U.S. laws by acting as a middleman in an effort to help the oil-for-food program supply food and medicine to suffering Iraqis.
The oil-for-food program from 1996 to 2003 permitted the Iraqi government to sell oil primarily to buy humanitarian goods. It was designed to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions, but authorities said the program was corrupted because Saddam was allowed to choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods.
Park did not have to register as an agent of a foreign government because he was not working for Iraq, Kim said.
''Don't convict a man just because the circumstances are suspicious or strange,'' he told the jurors.
Park was closely associated with the United Nations and was ''not just a friend of Boutros-Ghali, but an adviser,'' he said.
He also said Park never suspected Vincent was an agent of the government of Iraq because Vincent seemed to be ''playing all sides against the middle,'' representing the interests of himself, businesses worldwide and government leaders at various times.
''Even if Mr. Vincent was walking around with a big sign that said, 'I'm an Iraqi agent,' it's not illegal,'' he said.
Park could face more than a dozen years in prison if convicted. Vincent pleaded guilty last year to being an unregistered agent for Iraq and will be sentenced after he completes his cooperation with the government.