A former United Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors, federal prosecutors said.
Alexander Yakovlev also admitted to soliciting a bribe under the U.N. oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted program for Iraq.
He pleaded guilty to all three counts in the indictment - wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering - and could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Sounds to me like Kofi thinks he has found the scapegoat. I think that is why he waived the diplomatic immunity.
The US needs to not stop here. We have to continue the investigation, and we need to get this clown to step up and tell us who knew what and when. If we had played hardball and not accepted the plea, perhaps this could be done. However, I smell a rat named Kofi that wants to let this be the scapegoat and let the full revelation of the egregious sins of the UN go unrevealed. Look at this tidbit from the story:
Earlier Monday, a U.N.-backed probe investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program accused Yakovlev of collecting nearly $1 million in kickbacks outside the program. It said he also sought a bribe as part of his work for it.
The Independent Inquiry Committee, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, had recommended Annan lift Yakovlev's immunity if the request came.
I even sense Volcker, perhaps at the urging of his old boss Jimmy "did you know I encouraged Islamofascism(see Iran)" Carter, is looking to make this guy be the scapegoat so we can all go back to thinking of the UN as actually being a useful body, as opposed to Unimportant Nobodies.
