Ex-UN diplomat guilty of money laundering
Mark Turner
March 8, 2007
Financial Times
Original Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ac7aa998-cd0a-11db-a938-000b5df10621.html

A US federal court on Wednesday convicted a former high-ranking United Nations official of conspiring to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in a scheme to help companies win lucrative UN contracts.
A Manhattan jury took less than an hour to deliver the verdict on Vladimir Kuznetsov, a 49-year-old Russian national who had served as chairman of an influential UN financial advisory committee known as the ACABQ. Sentencing is set for June 25. According to a September 2005 indictment, Mr Kuznetsov “laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in criminal proceeds” obtained by a UN procurement officer from about 2000 through to June 2005.
Alexander Yakovlev, the UN procurement officer in question, had pleaded guilty in August 2005 to conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering charges, over money he took from companies “seeking to secure contracts to provide goods and services to the UN”.
The UN, which was facing strong US criticism for alleged corruption over the oil-for-food programme, agreed to lift Mr Kuznetsov’s diplomatic immunity. However, the decision proved to be controversial – with Russia arguing that he had a diplomatic passport and visa. Russia paid for his defence in the subsequent trial.
The ACABQ is the UN’s primary financial advisory body, which makes recommendations to the UN General Assembly on how to spend UN finances. It is made up of nominally independent experts, and Mr Kuznetsov was paid by the UN. 
Ban Ki-moon, the new UN secretary-general, has pledged to inject more accountability into the way the UN is managed.
According the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, the procurement officer told Mr Kuznetsov early in 2000 that he was using an offshore company to collect secret payments and promised to cut Mr Kuznetsov in on the scheme. Mr Kuznetsov opened an account at Antigua Overseas Bank and received more than $300,000 in illegal proceeds, prosecutors said.
The verdict marks the latest in a concerted effort by the US to bring the UN bureaucracy to heel. Michael Garcia, the US attorney, has brought a series of cases against UN-affiliated personnel for everything from drug smuggling and immigration fraud to corruption in the oil-for-food programme.