UN's Sevan runs out of luck--indicted by federal court on Oil-for-Food corruption charges

One of the more disgraceful episodes that took place during Kofi Annan's sad reign as general secretary of the United Nations was the Oil-for-Food scandal.

The Oil-for-Food program was supposed to be a bare-essentials lifeline for ordinary Iraqis while UN sanctions were imposed on Iraq after the 1991 invasion of Kuwait.

But like most UN programs, Oil-for-Food quickly turned into a farce. But justice may be coming: The man in charge of the program, Benon Sevan, was indicted today in New York.

From Fox News, the outlet that broke the story of the indictment:

Former U.N. Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan has been indicted in New York federal court for allegedly taking bribes under the program from Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S. authorities announced Tuesday.

The charges, detailed in a joint press release by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office and the Manhattan district attorney, came over a year after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker completed an investigation for the United Nations into the massively corrupted Oil-for-Food program that operated in Saddam's Iraq between 1996 and 2003.

According to the press release, Sevan allegedly received $160,000 generated from the sale of Iraqi oil under the program from one Ephraim Nadler, an associate who was also indicted, on behalf of the government of Iraq. The money was allegedly used to pay off overdue credit cards and bills.

Specifically, the two were charged with wire fraud, based on their depriving the United Nations of its right to Sevan's honest services; bribery concerning an organization — the United Nations that receives more than $10,000 annually from the federal government; and conspiracy to commit these offenses.

However, Sevan lives in Cyprus, and the United States does not have an extradition treaty with the Mediterranean country for financial offenses. So Sevan's luck may last a while. But don't expect him to be vacationing in the United States soon.

Over the year's Pajamas Media's Claudia Rosett has performed a suberb service keeping an eye on the crooked shenanigans at the United Nations. She helped break the Oil-for-Food story, and about a year ago, caught up with Sevan in Cyprus.

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