Bulldog U.N. task force earns respect, if not love 

By Colum Lynch 
The Washington Post 
January 21, 2008
Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004136297&zsection_id=2003905675&slug=ungraft21&date=20080121

UNITED NATIONS — Robert Appleton, a senior U.N. crime fighter, has pursued corruption from New Delhi to Manhattan's swank W Hotel, where two U.N. officials wound down a $6,000 night of drinking, strip clubs and prostitutes, courtesy of a corrupt executive seeking to do business with the United Nations.

As head of the two-year-old U.N. Procurement Task Force, the former federal prosecutor oversees a team of as many as 19 international investigators, who have identified more than $610 million in tainted contracts and $25 million in misappropriated funds.

The alleged crimes include bid rigging of multimillion-dollar contracts for fuel, food and helicopters; petty bribery; and millions in overcharges.

Corruption is not unique to the United Nations, Appleton said in an interview. But the U.N. is in some sense unique because of its geographical breadth. It's at risk for a lot of reasons.

Appleton's team has employed white-collar anti-fraud tactics in an organization that has traditionally relied on former police investigators to conduct complex financial corruption probes. His investigations have resulted in an unprecedented number of misconduct findings against 17 U.N. staff members, and have led to the conviction of a procurement officer who steered more than $100 million in contracts to a state-owned Indian company.

They are like a bulldog, said Andrew Toh, a senior U.N. procurement official from Singapore who is the target of an ongoing probe into influence peddling. Toh has been charged with misconduct for not cooperating fully with the investigators and not fully disclosing his financial records, but the task force has so far not proved allegations he illegally steered contracts.

The task force has been embraced by the U.N.'s top investigator, Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, and Secretary-general Ban Ki- moon. They have pressed for the team — which operates under a mandate that expires at the end of the year — to become a permanent part of the U.N. investigations team. But Appleton and Ahlenius have clashed with other senior U.N. officials who have been criticized in task-force reports, and with governments whose nationals his team targeted.

One Singaporean diplomat likened Appleton's work to that of the Spanish Inquisition, saying it trampled Toh's due process. Singapore joined other developing countries in securing agreement to launch an independent inquiry into the practices in Appleton's office.

Appleton, 42, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut for 13 years. He has put in jail Jose Stroh, a money launderer for the Cali drug cartel; prosecuted international arms traffickers for selling weapons to Pakistan and Iran; and secured convictions for more than 150 gang members for murder, drug trafficking and racketeering.

Appleton was hired in 2005 as legal counsel to former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was investigating the United Nations' $64 billion oil-for-food program in Iraq. Appleton led the team's probes into procurement fraud, focusing on allegations against former Secretary General Kofi Annan and his son Kojo.

Appleton was chosen the task force's deputy after it was established in January 2006, and he assumed command of the team last April. In the spring of 2006, Appleton traveled to New Delhi while investigating Nishan Kohli, the executive who secured more than $100 million in contracts for an Indian state telecommunications company by lavishing U.N. officials with gifts. The two U.N. officials he entertained at the W Hotel in 2002 were charged with misconduct and fired.

In his first year on the job, Appleton stumbled into a power struggle between the secretary-general's office, which created the task force, and the U.N. General Assembly, which pays for it. A key bloc of developing nations — the Group of 77 — has grudgingly extended the task force's mandate another year.

Imtiaz Hussain, a Pakistani diplomat, said the developing world's problem with Appleton is not personal. Many resent that the United Nations can find funds for initiatives pushed by wealthy countries but not for anti-poverty projects favored by poor nations, he said.

He appears to be professionally quite competent, Hussain said. At the same time, we also try to safeguard our prerogatives.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company