Two Senior Investigators Quit Volcker's Commission
BY BENNY AVNI - Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 21, 2005

Two top investigators who believe the recent report by the Paul Volcker commission was too soft on Secretary-General Annan quit their positions on the commission recently, in an indication that internal disputes are growing within the U.N.-mandated investigation.
The resignations of American attorneys Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan were confirmed yesterday by a spokeswoman at the office of Michael Holtzman, who is the chief spokesman for the Independent Inquiry Commission for the oil-for-food program.
The spokeswoman told The New York Sun that Mr. Parton and Ms. Duncan have concluded their assignments for the commission, adding that both have moved on to other things.
The spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, would not release further information. She would not comment on the exact timing of the resignations, in particular whether they came before or after last Thursday's indictments unsealed by U.S. Attorney David Kelley in Manhattan federal court.
The ongoing investigation by the Volcker commission is invoked increasingly by U.N. officials to deflect questions about a growing number of scandals involving Mr. Annan's circle of advisers. For example, Mr. Annan refused to comment for the Sun on Tuesday on a scandal involving Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong on the grounds that the matter is being looked at by the commission. That Ms. Duncan and Mr. Parton stepped down, however, indicates that some on the commission are not confident in its ability to perform thorough investigations into such matters.
Repeated calls to Mr. Parton's personal phone number were not returned. There was no response to messages left at Ms. Duncan's direct number at the Volcker commission offices. She did not respond when the Sun left a message for her at the Rockefeller Family Fund, where she is a member of the board.
The Associated Press yesterday quoted Mr. Volcker's deputy on the commission, Mark Pieth, as saying that the two investigators believed that the most recent Volcker report - which Mr. Annan said exonerated him of all allegations regarding the oil-for-food program - was too soft on the secretary-general.
Adrian Gonzalez, the Paris-based attorney for Pierre Mouselli, a key witness who was quoted in that report, told the Sun that Ms. Duncan and Mr. Parton were two of only three commission members with whom he and his client dealt.
I took them to be the top investigative team in the field, Mr. Gonzalez told the Sun yesterday. He added that Mr. Parton called him after his resignation for a long phone conversation. In it, Mr. Gonzalez said, Mr. Parton did not articulate fully the reasons for his departure, but gave clear indications for his and Ms. Duncan's resignations.
Mr. Parton pointed out, according to Mr. Gonzalez, that the two were dissatisfied with the investigation, and did not leave over personal matters. My understanding is that it was not just a cat fight, Mr. Gonzalez said. There is something there in the process itself that made them quit.
According to the commission, the disagreements were reflected in the report. The collective judgments of the Committee are contained in the Committee's Interim Reports. All the evidence on which these judgments are based is also contained in those Reports, the commission's spokesman, Mr. Holtzman, said in a statement yesterday.
Mr. Parton, who led the three-member field team of investigators, began his career with the San Francisco-based law firm Morrison and Foerster, and has also worked for the FBI. Ms. Duncan, a granddaughter of David Rockefeller, is a lawyer who had done work for the U.N. agency Unicef in the past.
She was the only one among the three who spoke any language other than English, Mr. Gonzalez told the Sun, adding that she speaks passable French. The third investigator, Michael Cornacchia, remains on the commission, which declined a request yesterday to release biographical notes on its members.
The three investigators are part of the Volcker team, which employs 70 people and has a budget that is estimated at a minimum of $30 million, funded by the remains of an oil-for-food account. A former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Volcker, heads the group, and he has two deputies, South African Judge Richard Goldstone and Mr. Pieth, a Swiss law professor.
Signs of internal disagreement began to emerge immediately after the March 29 release of the Volcker committee's second interim report. Mr. Volcker, the main speaker at a press conference that day, gave the impression that no serious findings were directed against Mr. Annan. But other members, including Messrs. Pieth and Goldstone, stated publicly that Mr. Annan's declaration of exoneration was unjustified.
I don't believe this is a full vindication, a former Canadian intelligence official, Reid Morden, who is now the head investigator for the commission, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
United Nations officials and spokesmen relied heavily on the Volcker commission in Tuesday's daily briefing answers. I think the team [Mr. Volcker] has put together is of top quality, a U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in answering a barrage of questions on the scandals. If you look at the reports themselves, they spare no one. They're not softball reports.
Mr. Gonzalez countered that the fact that the commission went out of its way to discredit his client, Mr. Mouselli, cast doubt on its reports. Mr. Gonzalez added that the discrediting of Mouselli might also have contributed to the infighting among its members and to the resignation of the two investigators.
Mr. Mouselli told the Sun in a recent interview that Mr. Annan's lawyer, Greg Craig, as well as Kojo Annan's lawyer and perhaps even Kojo himself, seemed more eager to exonerate the secretary-general above all. The Volcker report, he said, was a whitewash. It's only to wash white even more than white, the French-Lebanese businessman said.
When asked by the Sun Tuesday whether the Mr. Strong should continue to represent the U.N. in the Korean peninsula after admitting he had business dealings with Korean businessman and accused influence-peddler, Tongsun Park, Mr. Annan reflexively invoked the commission.
Mr. Strong is in touch with the Volcker commission and has also indicated he will cooperate with anyone who's looking into this, Mr. Annan said, adding I've told what I need to say.
Yesterday, Mr. Strong issued a statement saying that he would suspend his U.N. activities in North Korea as long as the investigation into his involvement with Mr. Park continues.