U.N. Envoy Under Scrutiny for Ties to Lobbyist in Oil-for-Food Case

By Warren Hoge 
April 20, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/international/middleeast/20food.html?ex=1117684800&en=5892d5e29bfede11&ei=5070
UNITED NATIONS, April 19 - The United Nations said Tuesday that it was weighing whether a special envoy for Secretary General Kofi Annan who has admitted associating with a lobbyist charged in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food program should step aside while investigations into his role continued.
Also under examination was the appropriateness of the envoy, Maurice F. Strong, a special adviser on North Korea, entering into a business deal with the lobbyist, Tongsun Park, a South Korean with a scandalous past, said a United Nations spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
Mr. Strong, 75, a Canadian entrepreneur, said Monday that Mr. Park had invested in an energy company he was associated with in 1997 and that he continued to maintain a relationship with Mr. Park. He disclosed the details in a statement in which he said he had had no role in any activities relating to Iraq.
Mr. Park, 70, the central figure in an influence-peddling scandal in the 1970's, was charged last week by federal authorities in New York with being an unregistered lobbyist for Iraq in trying to influence the oil-for-food program.
The criminal complaint said Mr. Park received at least $2 million in secret payments from Saddam Hussein's government for acting as a liaison between Iraq and United Nations officials. It also alleged that Mr. Park intended to bribe an unidentified United Nations official and invested $1 million in a Canadian company belonging to the son of a second United Nations official.
Mr. Strong has held a number of advisory and executive positions at the United Nations since 1970, including the chairmanship of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and an appointment in 1997 as senior adviser to Mr. Annan on United Nations reform. 
Mr. Strong's assistant in his United Nations office, Kristina Mayo, said Tuesday that he was in the Dominican Republic, recuperating from pneumonia, and would be making no public comments because of the continuing investigation. 
Mr. Dujarric said Mr. Strong had informed the United Nations that he had been contacted by the independent committee led by Paul A. Volcker that is investigating the oil-for-food program. A committee spokesman said only that it welcomed Mr. Strong's willingness to cooperate with the Independent Inquiry Committee in order to determine whether or not he had any direct involvement with the oil-for-food program.
Mr. Annan, asked if he had known of the relationship between Mr. Strong and Mr. Park, said he was not aware of it.
Mr. Strong's statement said he had no connection whatsoever with the U.N.'s Iraq oil-for-food program or any other of its Iraqi activities.