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5-Year Sentence in Oil-For-Food Scheme
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A businessman who was accused in the 1970s of trying to buy influence in Congress in the "Koreagate" scandal was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the sentence was harsh for a defendant in poor health, but said it was reasonable and appropriate for 71-year-old Tongsun Park, convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the oil-for-food program.
Park, a South Korean, traveled to Iraq to pick up $700,000 in cash and accepted envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.
"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program," the judge said as he sentenced Park on Thursday. He also fined Park $15,000 and ordered him to forfeit $1.2 million.
He said Park "blatantly violated the law" by bribing a U.N. official or acting as though he were and by assisting Saddam Hussein's government while cheating the Iraqi people.
~~~
Federal prosecutors said at Park's July trial that he was part of a corrupt group of bureaucrats and oil tycoons who enabled a humanitarian effort to be twisted into a corrupt venture for bureaucrats, oil magnates and Saddam.
Earlier Thursday, the judge rejected requests by Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc. sole shareholder David B. Chalmers Jr. and oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev to dismiss charges alleging the three paid secret and illegal surcharges to Iraq to receive allocations of oil. Among charges they faced were wire fraud and conspiracy. The three have pleaded not guilty, were freed on bail and are awaiting trial.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OIL_FOR_FOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A businessman who was accused in the 1970s of trying to buy influence in Congress in the "Koreagate" scandal was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to influence the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the sentence was harsh for a defendant in poor health, but said it was reasonable and appropriate for 71-year-old Tongsun Park, convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the oil-for-food program.
Park, a South Korean, traveled to Iraq to pick up $700,000 in cash and accepted envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.
"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program," the judge said as he sentenced Park on Thursday. He also fined Park $15,000 and ordered him to forfeit $1.2 million.
He said Park "blatantly violated the law" by bribing a U.N. official or acting as though he were and by assisting Saddam Hussein's government while cheating the Iraqi people.
~~~
Federal prosecutors said at Park's July trial that he was part of a corrupt group of bureaucrats and oil tycoons who enabled a humanitarian effort to be twisted into a corrupt venture for bureaucrats, oil magnates and Saddam.
Earlier Thursday, the judge rejected requests by Texas oilman Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc. sole shareholder David B. Chalmers Jr. and oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev to dismiss charges alleging the three paid secret and illegal surcharges to Iraq to receive allocations of oil. Among charges they faced were wire fraud and conspiracy. The three have pleaded not guilty, were freed on bail and are awaiting trial.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OIL_FOR_FOOD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
