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JoongAng Daily National
Kim Young-hie, Ser Myo-ja
April 16, 2005
A South Korean businessman, once at the center of an influence-peddling scandal involving 187 U.S. congressmen, has resurfaced and been charged with lobbying for Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, in return for $2 million.
Federal prosecutors in New York have sought an arrest warrant for Park Tongsun, accusing him of receiving secret payments from Saddam's administration in return for acting as an agent between the Iraqi regime and UN officials. The U.S. investigators accused Mr. Park of attempting to bribe a senior UN official to assist Saddam's attempts to abuse a UN-led humanitarian program for Iraq. The UN official was not named.
In a telephone interview from Japan, Mr. Park, 70, told the Joongang Ilbo that he had been offered a plea-bargain from the U.S. federal prosecution in return for testifying before a U.S. court. "I am seriously considering the offer," Mr. Park said. "The prosecutors only accused me of acting as an unregistered agent, and have not pressed official charges against me yet."
If convicted, he could face up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000.
Mr. Park claimed that the U.S. federal investigators' target is corrupt, high-ranking UN officials involved in the UN-led oil-for-food program for Iraq. He alleged that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is among the targets.
The humanitarian program was created in 1996 to counterbalance the consequences of sanctions on Iraq by allowing the country to export oil to buy food and medicine. The program ended in 2003 with the U.S.-led invasion. Through the program, Saddam's regime reportedly raised $2 billion illicitly.
Mr. Park admitted that he had been paid by Saddam's government for lobbying.
Mr. Park was at the center of the 1976 "Koreagate" scandal, one of the largest corruption cases in U.S. congressional history. In 1977, he faced 36 federal charges including bribery, failure to register as a lobbyist and making illegal political contributions. Investigations later found that 187 congressional members accepted bribes from Mr. Park; the gifts bought congressional support for U.S. military and economic assistance to South Korea . There were allegations that he was directed by then-Korean president Park Chung Hee. Mr. Park was acquitted in return for his testimony.
Born in 1935, he moved to the United States at age 17 and graduated from Georgetown University.
Meanwhile, a round of criminal charges was unveiled yesterday against U.S. and foreign figures accused of abusing the $64 billion program separately from Mr. Park's case.
The prosecutors indicted David Chalmers Jr., founder of Houston-based oil company Bayoil, and John Irving, a British oil trader, on charges of importing oil at discounted prices from Iraq and paying millions of dollars in kickbacks from 2000 to 2003. |
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