Sentence in Oil-For-Food Case Reduced
By Larry Neumeister
February 19, 2008
The Associated Press 
Original Source:  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jErm6rwSbhBn32bVl7TUOhC6APCAD8UTKMD06
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has reduced the sentence of a South Korean businessman who accepted more than $2.5 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the United Nations oil-for-food program.
In a document filed Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin formally reduced Tongsun Park's five-year sentence to three years and one month in prison after considering his cooperation with the government and his medical condition.
Park, 72, was convicted in July 2006 of conspiring to violate federal law by acting as an agent of the government of Iraq, which paid him primarily in $100 bills.
Prosecutors on Jan. 24 asked the court to re-sentence Park, saying he had given substantial assistance to the U.S. government. A few days later, Park's lawyers asked that their client be freed from prison after serving about 25 months, citing his advancing age and serious medical condition.
Messages seeking comment from Park's lawyer and prosecutors were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Park also has been fined $15,000 and ordered to forfeit $1.2 million.
Operating from 1996 to 2003, the oil-for-food program was designed to let the Iraqi government sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for its citizens. Sanctions had been imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait and brought about the first Gulf War.
By 2000, authorities said, Saddam Hussein had begun insisting that kickbacks be paid to secure oil contracts.
In November, Chin sentenced Texas oilman Oscar Wyatt Jr. to a year and a day in prison after the 83-year-old interrupted his trial by pleading guilty to conspiracy in the case.