Iraqi-American charged in U.N. oil-for-food probe
From Terry Frieden -- CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Posted: 3:05 PM EST (2005 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Tuesday the first U.S. criminal charges in the investigation of the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq, government sources said.
Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American who headed Phoenix International in northern Virginia, pleaded guilty to tax violations and engaging in activities as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, U.S. government sources said.
Vincent entered his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the sources said.
The charges result from multiple investigations regarding alleged corruption in the program, which allowed Iraq, while under economic sanctions stemming from its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, to export a limited supply of crude oil and earmark the revenues for purchases of food, medicine and supplies.
The U.N. oil-for-food program began in December 1996 and ended in November 2003. Under the program's provisions, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of U.N. sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.
A CIA report found evidence that Saddam had used the program to bribe several international figures, including oil-for-food administrator Benon Sevan. Sevan has denied wrongdoing.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a three-person committee to investigate, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. That investigation has not yet been completed.
According to a report from The Associated Press, court papers in Vincent's case shows that between 1992 and 2003 Vincent worked closely with Saddam's government in an effort to persuade U.S. and U.N. officials to repeal those economic sanctions and on matters related to admission of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq.
Vincent was also involved in the drafting of the oil-for-food program, including agreements guaranteeing himself and others "millions of dollars in compensation," according to the AP report.
Vincent received $3 million to $5 million, said David N. Kelley, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, according to the AP report,
Vincent is among a handful of American individuals and companies who directly purchased less than 1 percent of the $64 billion in oil bought under the program.
Phoenix International paid $162.2 million for 4.1 million barrels purchased between 1997 and 2000, according to studies by the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group and by the U.N.-appointed Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
The Iraq Survey Group report in October by former Iraq weapons inspector Charles Duelfer found that Vincent purchased an additional 3.8 million barrels for himself between 1998 and 2002.
The Iraqi-born Vincent has lived in the United States since 1958 and graduated in 1962 from Boston College, where he was a standout member of the track team. In 1964, he represented Iraq on its Olympic team.
In 2000, Vincent, a Catholic, organized a delegation of Iraqi religious leaders to visit the United States and meet with former President Carter and the late New York Cardinal John O'Connor. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops later spoke out against the sanctions, citing its ill effects on Iraqi children.
CNN's Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/18/oi...ood/index.html