Oil-For-Food Scambag Arrested

Through an investigation by the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services, or OIOS, a Russian diplomat has been arrested by the FBI for money laundering. Vladimir Kuznetsov, 48, chairman of the powerful U.N. Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, had his diplomatic immunity revoked by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at the request of U.S. officials.

Kuznetsov is accused of laundering money for Alexander Yakovlev, a procurement official, who admitted to soliciting bribes in the oil-for-food program. Arrested last month, Yakovlev pleaded guilty to fraud and soliciting bribes.

Interestingly, the OIOS was not specifically looking at the oil-for-food program when they discovered the malfeasance. It was exposed during an overall investigation of the U.N. procurement process. The group that supposedly is investigating the oil-for-food program, the U.N.-funded Independent Inquiry Committee, was totally unaware of Kuznetsov's scam. I suspect that the Independent Inquiry Committee's radar was saturated with scams and they simply glossed over them.