SLEUTHS FIND U.N. OIL $TASH
NEW YORK POST ^ | July 18, 2005 | NILES LATHEM
 

WASHINGTON — Investigators have discovered overseas bank accounts belonging to disgraced U.N. oil-for-food program head Benon Sevan that could unlock the mystery over whether he profited from dirty deals with Saddam Hussein, The Post has learned.

Sources close to the numerous probes of the giant U.N. scandal revealed that investigators have recently discovered that Sevan, who lives in New York, has accounts in Switzerland, Turkey and Cyprus — countries with notoriously tight bank secrecy laws.

Massive behind-the-scenes efforts are under way by investigative agencies to gain access to the records, according to officials with two separate agencies involved in the U.N. probe.

Sevan, who is now under suspension from the United Nations, will be the focus of one of three reports expected to be issued over the next several weeks by the Independent Inquiry Commission, headed by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is conducting a criminal probe of Sevan's alleged dealings. At least two congressional panels are also expected to issue reports in the fall about Sevan's oil dealings.

Sevan, the former executive director of the scandal-scarred, $64 billion humanitarian aid program to Iraq, remains unable to return to the U.N. headquarters without permission, under the terms of his suspension.

Sevan, a native of Cyprus, has repeatedly denied that he took oil bribes from Saddam's regime and said he is being made a scapegoat.

In its February report, the Volcker commission discovered Iraqi Oil Ministry documents indicating that Sevan was awarded sweetheart oil deals through a Panamanian-registered company owned by a relative of ex-U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The commission stopped short of accusing Sevan of accepting bribes, saying it had not been able to trace money from the deals between Iraq and the Panamanian company directly to him. But the Volcker panel said...
 

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