Ex-head of the program "Oil in exchange for food" is charged with corruption

The former director of the UN Humanitarian Program in exchange for food Benon Sevan is in absentia on Tuesday in New York of bribery and fraud. The program that Sevan headed from 1996 to 2003 was called upon to mitigate the consequences of international economic sanctions for the Iraq population.

The Federal Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York Michael Garcia said that Sevan allegedly received about 160 thousand dollars in the form of a bribe from a certain Efraim Nadler, acting on behalf of the Iraqi authorities and who was a relative of the former Secretary General of the UN Butro Gali, ITAR-TASS reports.

The investigating charges of corruption in the framework of this largest humanitarian program of the Wolker in 2005 accused Sevan of having repeatedly sought from the Iraqi authorities the allocation of oil quotas for the private company African Middle East Petroleum.

The commissions, however, failed to establish whether he received a monetary reward for this. Nevertheless, the commission regarded the behavior of the former UN official as a “wrong point of view” and caused serious damage to the prestige of the organization.

Garcia said that the arrest orders were issued to Nadelir and Sevan. According to him, the American authorities will seek their extradition in the United States. Sevan, who is already working at the UN and lives in Cyprus, was subsequently deprived of the UN of diplomatic immunity. The whereabouts of the deputy is not known.

"The UN has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the US authorities in the wake of the investigation conducted by the Volker commission," the UN Secretary General said on Tuesday. According to him, the Secretary General confirms "his commitment to ensuring that UN employees meet the highest ethical requirements."