It still amazes me how little media attention the Food For Oil deals people get! Some how Bush is bad for going into Iraq, but all the countries that were corrupt, taking money while Iraqis died so Saddam could enrich himself are absolved. Here is just yet another of a
long list of criminals involved with the UN Food-for-Oil Program.
The judge acknowledged it was a harsh punishment for a 71-year-old man in poor health: five years in prison for participating in a conspiracy involving the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
But U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said the sentence was reasonable and appropriate for Tongsun Park, convicted of accepting at least $2 million to secretly work on Iraq's behalf to influence the oil-for-food program. Along the way, Park traveled to Iraq to pick up $700,000 in cash and accepted envelopes stuffed with $100 bills.
"You acted out of greed, acted to profit out of what was supposed to be a humanitarian program," the judge said as he sentenced Park Thursday. He also fined Park $15,000 and ordered him to forfeit $1.2 million.
He said Park "blatantly violated the law" by bribing a U.N. official or acting as though he were and by assisting Saddam Hussein's government while cheating the Iraqi people.