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STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF BENON V. SEVAN
Eric L. Lewis Baach Robinson & Lewis, PLLC Counsel to Mr. Sevan
AZG Armenian Daily
18/01/2007
More than a year and a half after Benon Sevan left the United States
to return to his home country, the United States Attorney's office
has decided to use Mr. Sevan as a scapegoat and a distraction
from the United States' own massive failures and mismanagement
in Iraq. Mr. Sevan ran a $64 billion program that delivered food,
medicine and essential infrastructure to the Iraqi people under nearly
impossible conditions. In the nearly four years since Mr. Sevan turned
over the program's assets to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the
United States has done none of these things. Now the United States
Government has repackaged the same discredited allegations made by
the Volcker Committee-- that Mr. Sevan took some $144,000 in cash,
funds that he fully reported as family gifts on his UN disclosure
form beginning more than seven years ago. These allegations are not
only trivial; they are without basis.
Benon Sevan has served the UN for forty years in some of the most
difficult assignments in the world-including Afghanistan and Iraq
as well as Angola, Burundi, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia and South
Lebanon. Suicide bombers tried to kill him, blowing up his office
in Baghdad and killing his dear friends and colleagues. Mr. Sevan
ran the largest humanitarian program in UN history, a program that
literally saved tens of thousands of innocent people from death by
disease and starvation. Mr. Sevan rebuilt the Iraq infrastructure,
including the oil fields, that had been devastated by nearly a decade
of sanctions. Mr. Sevan confronted both the Iraqis and members of
the Security Council without fear or favor. He turned over more than
$10 billion to the United States in 2003, money that has effectively
vanished and has not been accounted for since then. Mr. Sevan accounted
for every penny of the $64 billion under his control.
It is important to note what the indictment does not charge. This
indictment does not charge-- because it cannot-that Mr. Sevan ever
took any action or failed to take any action other than in the best
interests of the Oil- For-Food Programme and the United Nations.
Apparently, however, the US Attorney has simply adopted the Volcker
Committee's unfounded conclusions.
Mr. Sevan had fully accounted for and reported any payments he received
beginning in 1999. The only acts referenced in the indictment by
Mr. Sevan are two cash deposits, one of $5,000 in August 2001 and
$1,200 in January 2002. Mr. Sevan fully disclosed all of his banking
records as well as the fact that, throughout his career traveling
for the United Nations, he made and withdrew such sums in cash
frequently. The indictment also charges that surcharge payments were
made by a certain Mr. Nadler, an acquaintance of Mr.
Sevan, to Iraq. Mr. Sevan knows nothing about any of Mr. Nadler's
arrangements, but it was Mr. Sevan who brought reports of such
surcharges being paid to the Saddam regime to the attention of the
Security Council, as the internal UN documentation will substantiate.
It is ludicrous to contend that in 1999 Mr. Sevan disclosed fictitious
gifts from his aunt on his forms in anticipation of misleading
investigators eight years later. These same baseless allegations
were made nearly two years ago, while Mr. Sevan still was working
for the UN. No action was taken. Instead the US Government has waited
nearly two years to issue a ceremonial charge long after Mr. Sevan's
retirement and return to his home country. There is no doubt that
there has been financial fraud and ineptitude by the United States in
Iraq on an unprecedented scale, which has significantly contributed
to the crisis in Iraq.
Instead of focusing on the devastating wrongdoing in Iraq, the US
Government has chosen to focus instead on fully disclosed family
gifts from a deceased relative.
Mr. Sevan is being used to distract attention from the political
and humanitarian disaster in Iraq from which the world will not
soon recover.
Eric L. Lewis Baach Robinson & Lewis, PLLC Counsel to Mr. Sevan
AZG Armenian Daily
18/01/2007
More than a year and a half after Benon Sevan left the United States
to return to his home country, the United States Attorney's office
has decided to use Mr. Sevan as a scapegoat and a distraction
from the United States' own massive failures and mismanagement
in Iraq. Mr. Sevan ran a $64 billion program that delivered food,
medicine and essential infrastructure to the Iraqi people under nearly
impossible conditions. In the nearly four years since Mr. Sevan turned
over the program's assets to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the
United States has done none of these things. Now the United States
Government has repackaged the same discredited allegations made by
the Volcker Committee-- that Mr. Sevan took some $144,000 in cash,
funds that he fully reported as family gifts on his UN disclosure
form beginning more than seven years ago. These allegations are not
only trivial; they are without basis.
Benon Sevan has served the UN for forty years in some of the most
difficult assignments in the world-including Afghanistan and Iraq
as well as Angola, Burundi, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia and South
Lebanon. Suicide bombers tried to kill him, blowing up his office
in Baghdad and killing his dear friends and colleagues. Mr. Sevan
ran the largest humanitarian program in UN history, a program that
literally saved tens of thousands of innocent people from death by
disease and starvation. Mr. Sevan rebuilt the Iraq infrastructure,
including the oil fields, that had been devastated by nearly a decade
of sanctions. Mr. Sevan confronted both the Iraqis and members of
the Security Council without fear or favor. He turned over more than
$10 billion to the United States in 2003, money that has effectively
vanished and has not been accounted for since then. Mr. Sevan accounted
for every penny of the $64 billion under his control.
It is important to note what the indictment does not charge. This
indictment does not charge-- because it cannot-that Mr. Sevan ever
took any action or failed to take any action other than in the best
interests of the Oil- For-Food Programme and the United Nations.
Apparently, however, the US Attorney has simply adopted the Volcker
Committee's unfounded conclusions.
Mr. Sevan had fully accounted for and reported any payments he received
beginning in 1999. The only acts referenced in the indictment by
Mr. Sevan are two cash deposits, one of $5,000 in August 2001 and
$1,200 in January 2002. Mr. Sevan fully disclosed all of his banking
records as well as the fact that, throughout his career traveling
for the United Nations, he made and withdrew such sums in cash
frequently. The indictment also charges that surcharge payments were
made by a certain Mr. Nadler, an acquaintance of Mr.
Sevan, to Iraq. Mr. Sevan knows nothing about any of Mr. Nadler's
arrangements, but it was Mr. Sevan who brought reports of such
surcharges being paid to the Saddam regime to the attention of the
Security Council, as the internal UN documentation will substantiate.
It is ludicrous to contend that in 1999 Mr. Sevan disclosed fictitious
gifts from his aunt on his forms in anticipation of misleading
investigators eight years later. These same baseless allegations
were made nearly two years ago, while Mr. Sevan still was working
for the UN. No action was taken. Instead the US Government has waited
nearly two years to issue a ceremonial charge long after Mr. Sevan's
retirement and return to his home country. There is no doubt that
there has been financial fraud and ineptitude by the United States in
Iraq on an unprecedented scale, which has significantly contributed
to the crisis in Iraq.
Instead of focusing on the devastating wrongdoing in Iraq, the US
Government has chosen to focus instead on fully disclosed family
gifts from a deceased relative.
Mr. Sevan is being used to distract attention from the political
and humanitarian disaster in Iraq from which the world will not
soon recover.