CYPRIOT UN OFFICIAL CHARGED WITH BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION
By Jean Christou
Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Jan 17 2007
THE U.S. is seeking the arrest and extradition of Armenian Cypriot
Benon Sevan, the former head of the UN oil for food programme,
after charging him in New York yesterday in absentia with bribery
and corruption.
Ephraim Nadler, the brother-in-law of former UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was also named in an indictment at the Manhattan
federal court.
Cypriot citizens cannot be extradited but given the high-profile
nature of the case, if the US cranks up the pressure, it may cause
a headache for the Cyprus authorities.
Attorney-general Petros Clerides told the Cyprus Mail last night he had
not heard about the indictment through any official channels as yet.
He said there was an extradition treaty with the US and that a number
of people had been extradited there over the years.
However when reminded that Sevan was a Cypriot citizen, Clerides
decided not to comment further. "I can’t say anything," he said.
Government spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis was equally reticent.
He said the government would have to look at the US decision. "We
will have to talk to the Attorney-general," he added.
An investigation in 2005 concluded that Sevan solicited oil allocations
from Saddam Hussein’s regime on behalf of a trading company between
1998 and 2001, and it raised concerns he may have received kickbacks
for the help.
Sevan, 69, who served a distinguished 40-year career working for
the UN, is accused of receiving $160,000 between 1998 and 2000 in a
scandal that involved in total billions of dollars and 2,300 companies.
The inquiry accused Sevan of steering an oil contract to a small
Panama-registered trading firm, which netted the firm some $1.5
million.
He is the only UN official to have been charged, allegedly having
received the money from Nadler on behalf of the Iraqi government.
In New York, Michael Garcia, US attorney for New York said the United
States had lodged warrants for the arrest of Nadler and Sevan and
would seek their arrest and extradition.
"The allegations in this current indictment that the executive director
of the very programme that was created to provide humanitarian aid
to the Iraqi people was involved in such a scheme demonstrates how
pervasive the corruption was and how that corruption undermined the
operation of the programme," Garcia said.
At the United Nations, spokesman Farhan Haq said the world body had
been cooperating with US authorities in following up on the findings
of Volcker’s investigation and would continue to do so.
Sevan was one of two Cypriots under investigation. Little is known
about the second man Joseph Stephanides who was chief of the UN
Sanctions Branch, who is said to have colluded with a former British
UN ambassador in order for Lloyd’s Register Inspection Ltd. to get
a lucrative contract.
To account for the $160,000, which investigators deemed suspicious,
Sevan, who was born in Cyprus and attended the Melkonian in Nicosia,
said that he received large amounts of money annually from an aunt
on the island.
He recorded the amounts in his financial declarations.
Figures quoted in regards to the discrepancies in the oil-for-food
programme, which was shut down in 2003, range from $2 billion to
$21 billion.
Sevan’s aunt Berjouhi Zeytountsian, a retired civil servant who raised
him, died two years ago after falling into an elevator shaft.
Police declared her death an accident.
In a statement issued through his lawyers at the end of the inquiry,
Sevan said it was unfortunate that the independent investigative
committee has succumbed to massive political pressure "and now seeks
to scapegoat Benon Sevan".
Sevan could not be reached for comment at his Nicosia home last night.