Korean Lobbyist Arrested in Oil-for-Food Inquiry

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January 7, 2006

Korean Lobbyist Arrested in Oil-for-Food Inquiry

By JULIA PRESTON

Tongsun Park, a lobbyist from South Korea who was a central figure in the Congressional bribery scandal in the 1970's known as Koreagate, was arrested yesterday in Houston on charges that he worked illegally to secure favorable treatment for Iraq under the United Nations oil-for-food program, federal authorities said.

Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, announced that Mr. Park was arrested in Houston by F.B.I. agents, but provided no information about how he was found. Mr. Park's whereabouts had been unknown since he was first indicted on April 14, 2005, for his role in the program.

According to new charges unsealed yesterday, Mr. Park began working with an Iraqi-American businessman, Samir Vincent, as early as 1992 to represent the interests of Saddam Hussein's government in negotiations at the United Nations to set up the program. Mr. Park and Mr. Vincent met twice in 1993 with a high-ranking United Nations official, the criminal complaint says.

Federal prosecutors charged that Mr. Park had a direct role in influencing the course of the negotiations that created the oil-for-food program in April 1995. The program was set up to alleviate the effects of international sanctions against Iraq by using proceeds from sales of Iraqi oil to buy food, medicine and other supplies for the Iraqi people.

The complaint says that Mr. Park never registered in Washington as a foreign agent. He is charged with acting as an unregistered agent, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. He will appear Monday before a federal magistrate in Houston, Mr. Garcia's office said.

The complaint says that Mr. Park was paid at least $2 million, most of it in cash, by the Iraqi government. Much of the cash was delivered to Mr. Park in New York in Iraqi diplomatic pouches, the complaint says.

Mr. Park and Mr. Vincent "understood," the complaint says, that some of the money Mr. Park received from Iraq was to be used to "take care" of the high-ranking United Nations official, who is not named in the court documents.

A separate investigation led by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, found that Mr. Park and Mr. Vincent had attempted to pass $1 million to Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former secretary general of the United Nations. But Mr. Volcker's final report, issued Sept. 7, said there was no evidence that Mr. Boutros-Ghali had received or agreed to receive the funds. Mr. Boutros-Ghali denied receiving any money.

In the Koreagate affair, Mr. Park was accused of paying bribes to lawmakers to gain support for loans to South Korea.

Mr. Vincent pleaded guilty in January 2005 to illegal lobbying on behalf of Iraq, and has been cooperating in the federal investigation.

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....................영어공용화가 이미 시작됐나보군요.....미안하지만 이기사는 토익토플 시험성적이 좀나온 다음 다시 도전해보죠....쳇

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