First Guilty Verdict in Oil-for-Food Scandal

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July 14, 2006 10:48 AM

A South Korean businessman who was accused of orchestrating meetings and attempting to influence United Nations officials with the Oil-For-Food program was found guilty in U.S. Federal Court on conspiracy and money laundering charges yesterday.

Tongsun Park was alleged to have received payments from the Government of Iraq in exchange for his efforts to lift the embargo against Saddam Hussein's government, according to the indictment.

Park is set to be sentenced on Oct. 26 and could receive as many as 12 years in prison. Park's attorney, Michael Kim, said he hopes that the judge reverses the jury's decision and enters a judgment of acquittal. "Mr. Park is, in fact, not guilty," said Kim.

Oil-For-Food was established by the U.N. to allow Iraq, then under Saddam Hussein, to sell oil so that it could buy food and medicine. But billions of dollars went missing. A U.N. investigation determined that the former head of the program, Benon Sevan, had engaged in suspect and lucrative oil deals with the Iraqis.

Sevan denied any wrongdoing in a 2003 interview with ABC News' Brian Ross. Later documents surfaced from the files of the Iraqi oil ministry allegedly linking Sevan to a pay-off scheme in which some 270 prominent foreign officials received the right to trade in Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices.

ABC News obtained what investigators called a smoking gun memo, in which Sevan was mentioned specifically as giving directions as to which company should handle his personal oil deal estimated to be worth as much as $3.5 million.

When the news broke, ABC News again caught up with Sevan vacationing in Australia where he declined to answer any questions.