UN Russian guilty in bribe case

Kuznetsov was the elected head of a key budget oversight committee

A former Russian diplomat who chaired a UN budget committee has been found guilty of helping to launder more than $300,000 (£155,250) in bribes.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, 49, was found guilty on a single count by a US federal jury in Manhattan.

He will be sentenced on 25 June and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Kuznetsov helped Alexander Yakovlev, who worked in the UN's procurement office, pocket illegal payments from foreign companies seeking UN contracts.

Yakovlev pleaded guilty in 2005 to soliciting more than $1m in bribes and co-operated with authorities. He testified against Kuznetsov.

The procurement officer was the first UN official to face criminal charges over the scandal-hit oil-for-food programme to Iraq.

Oil-for-food programme

Kuznetsov, the elected head of a key UN budget oversight committee, was arrested in September 2005, after the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed to waive his diplomatic immunity.

Paul Volcker headed the inquiry into the oil-for-food programme

The charges against him grew out of a criminal inquiry into corruption in the controversial $64bn oil-for-food programme for Iraq.

The programme was first investigated by a UN-established commission, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, who traced about $950,000 held by Yakovlev to companies that won UN contracts.

Prosecutors said Kuznetsov found out about the secret payments to Yakovlev in 2000 and set up an offshore company to hide the transfer of his share of criminal proceeds.

The oil-for-food programme, set up in 1996, was intended to allow Iraq to sell its oil in return for humanitarian relief, so it would not breach sanctions imposed after the first Iraq war.

It was formally ended in 2003 after the US-led invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The corruption allegations that engulfed the programme have made it the biggest financial scandal in the United Nation's history.