The guilty verdict June 7 in the federal fraud and corruption case of former UN procurement official Sanjaya Bahel was a small step in the direction of justice done at the UN. But what about the stampeding in the wrong direction that went on for years, as UN officials apparently strove to ignore Bahel’s crooked schemes. What was going on at the UN, around and above Bahel, while he was steering contracts to friends in exchange for such stuff as luxury travel and living arrangements? UN officials twice exonerated him on the basis of much the same evidence that persuaded a jury to convict after less than half a day of deliberations. Fox’s George Russell and I take stock of some very big loose ends.
Contracts for Fraud
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Claudia Rosett is widely recognized as a ground-breaking reporter on corruption at the United Nations. Her investigative reporting skills, drawn from three decades as a journalist covering international affairs, led her to expose the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, the worst financial fraud in the history of humanitarian relief. Ms. Rosett worked from 1984-2002 as a staff editorialist, editor and reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared before six U.S. House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees to testify on subjects including U.N.-related corruption and the Iran-North Korea strategic alliance. Her work on Oil-for-Food earned Claudia the 2005 Eric Breindel Award and the Mightier Pen award, and for her on-site coverage of China's Tiananmen Square in 1989, she won an Overseas Press Club Citation for Excellence. She is a Foreign Policy Fellow with the Independent Women's Forum, and writes a column on foreign affairs for Forbes.com.
