… well not exactly but… somewhere… Kofi Annan has now officially fired Joseph Stephanides, head of the U.N. Security Council Affairs Division, who was suspended along with Oil-for-Food chief Benon Sevan last February.
The Buck Stops Here
June 1, 2005 - 6:35 pm
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Speaking of Sevan, anybody heard from this guy since he offed his Aunt?
What i want to know is wheres the money? How can such an enormous sum simply disappear?
“Stephanides, head of the U.N. Security Council Affairs Division, had been accused of tainting the competitive bidding process for a company to inspect humanitarian goods entering Iraq under the program.”
Couldn’t be Cotechna, could it?
Kojo’s “employer”?
Story says Lloyd’s Register Inspection Ltd. got the contract.
This seems like very small potatoes.
Kofi fired a staffer!
You’ve got to be kidding.
A gazillion dollar fraud perpetrated on the entire known universe and he fires a staffer!
I’d say Mr. Stephanides’ plaintive protest:
had the ring of meretricious truth.
Jamie Irons
Annan wasn’t even Secretary-General in ’96 when Stephanides’ “serious misconduct” occurred. Also, a British company is implicated and not a French, Swiss, Canadian, or Russian bandit corporation. How tidy. What are the odds that the next firing will center around an American wrongdoer?
Kyda,
I missed the Lloyds bit. The contract was nominally small potatoes in relationship to total OFF sums but one of the major allegations concerning the kickbacks was that inferior goods were shipped in as part of the deal. Lloyds and subsequently Cotecna (to a much greater extent) were responsible for verifying, at minimum, the documentation supporting the wire transfers – B/L’s insurance certificates and statements of compliance with standards.
Cotecna appears to have deliberately underbid Lloyds on the rebid of the inspection contract on the basis that their contract would be “adjusted” soon after award – which is precisely what happened. There is a strong possibility that Cotecna played a larger role in OFF than has been positively established to date.
Hey! The UNSC has a guy in charge of Affairs!
How cool is that?
or had, anyway.
I wonder if they have someone in charge of Tetes-a-tetes, as well…?
c,
Ghali picked Paribas, too. Perhaps on Strong’s impartial advice. Annan took over an operation that was pretty much in full swing. That’s why the entire office of the Secretariat needs fumigation. Kofi is certainly a sottocapo but anyone who listens to him wouldn’t mistake him for Mr. Big. Strong gets my vote for capo di tutti capi pending further investigation. Annan is the fall guy. Stephanides is litter.
I hope Sen. Norm Coleman doesn’t flag…it was back during Galloway’s testimony that he (Coleman)got the investigation’s presiding judge to grant a three-week extension of subpoena power. Not much time.
Wonder what’s a good Canadian blog keeping up with Mr. Strong and the other Liberal Party boys?
Look for slippery arguments, on the Benon appeal.
the entire office of the Secretariat needs fumigation
Rick,
I didn’t make myself clear, but certainly agree with everything you said. My point was that Annan’s move to sacrifice the hapless Mr. Stephanides looks precisely like a gambit to show how OFF misdeeds started before his “watch” and involved Coalition nation companies. A sort of pointing the finger away from himself and toward his accusers. Kofi may not have started the seedy operation, but he certainly oversaw a great deal of it, probably is a little dirty from it and is unlikely to give up the truly verminous culprits, which is a huge wrong in and of itself. Are we to rely on the Congressional Investigation to get Mr. Strong, or should we send Terminex to First Avenue and 46th?
C,
This is an extract from the U.N.’s biograghy of Kofi,
Annan knew the all the in’s-and-outs of the scheme.
Kofi,Benon,these are just two of the people who would have to be suborned in order to facilitate the scam,but they are still small fry.The princpal has to be capable of laundering vast amounts of money undetected,it can only be a nation state,an international corporation, organised crime a vastly wealthy individual or a combination thereof.
So far a lot of noise has been made about the propagandist Galloway but he is only a bit player.
Find the money and there will be whoever organised this.
Kofi “led the first United Nations team negotiating with Iraq on the sale of oil to fund purchases of humanitarian aid.”
Eg, why is that not surprising? Are we to believe that all the document shredding Annan’s exec sec did was done just to protect the rep of the UN and not Kofi’s back side?
Obviously, though, there are bigger criminals in the Unscam enterprise than he who Annan the middle man- bagman- fall guy is protecting. It would be almost comical if The Mr. Big turns out to be a Mr. Strong, but Peter makes a good point that the kickback and laundering scheme could be more a matter of corporate/national collusion facilitated by some Mr. Bigs, of course. My earlier point was just that Annan’s grand gesture in firing Stephanides rather pathetically tries to deflect attention away from him and the countries/principals who opposed the Iraq War for illicit self-gain and toward wrongdoing done by a British company and UN staffer before Annan became chief. It is a lame but predictable move.
Since Volcker’s report is compromised before it’s finished, the C.I. and chiefly Republicans will have to connect the dots as they come to light, while Annan is doing his damnedest to erase and smudge them before they do. What happens, though, if our Congress does manage to get a clearer picture as to who did what, when, and for how much? Prosecution, diplomatic leverage, corporate backroom dealing, a few speeches?