FACTBOX-Key figures cited in UN oil, food, probe

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (Reuters) – Following are key figures cited in
Monday’s report on the scandal-tainted now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food
program. The report was issued by a U.N.-established panel, headed by
former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, investigating the
$67 billion humanitarian program for Iraq.

BENON SEVAN – A Cypriot of Armenian descent, Sevan, 67, recently
retired after 40 years at the United Nations, where he was given one
difficult assignment after another. He was executive director of the
oil-for-food program throughout its existence from late 1996 to
2003. He was accused by the probe of getting nearly $150,000 in a
kickback after receiving oil allocations on behalf of a trading
company run by a relative of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali. He is in Cyprus and has denied all the allegations.

ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV – A senior procurement officials who had control
over numerous contracts, Yakovlev, a Russian, was accused by the
Volcker panel of taking nearly $1 million in bribes from companies
doing business with the United Nations, outside of the oil-for-food
program. Yakovlev has been arrested by federal prosecutors and
U.N. officials said they brought the case to the attention of law
enforcement officials.

BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI – A former Egyptian deputy foreign minister,
international law professor and author of a number of books, he served
as U.N. secretary-general from January 1992 to December 1996. He
helped set up and negotiate the terms for the oil-for-food program. He
left office a month after it went into operation after being vetoed
for a second term by the United States. He has been questioned by the
Volcker inquiry, but there is no evidence linking him to kickbacks.

FAKHRY ABDELNOUR – A cousin of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Abdelnour, an
Egyptian, heads a Swiss-based trading company, African Middle East
Petroleum (AMEP), registered in Panama. Sevan is accused of helping
Abdelnour lift about 7.3 million barrels of oil, which he then sold to
major oil companies. The company earned a profit of $1.5 million. He
is also accused of paying an illegal surcharge on the oil to Iraq.

EFRAIM (FRED) NADLER – The brother of Boutros-Ghali’s wife, Leia
Maria, Nadler is a friend of Sevan and Abdelnour. He is accused of
receiving $580,000 from Abdelnour’s company and then depositing in
cash $147,184 to the New York bank accounts of Sevan and his wife.

KOFI ANNAN – U.N. Secretary-General, who took office in 1997, is also
under investigation by the Volcker panel. His son, Kojo, worked for
the Swiss firm Cotecna, which received a lucrative contract on
Iraq. The panel is looking into whether Annan. a Ghanaian, interfered
in the awarding of the contract. But the panel has not found he
personally enriched himself.

08/08/05 19:06 ET

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress