Ex-U.N. official pleads guilty

NEW YORK – A former United Nations procurement officer pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting a bribe under the oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation.

Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian, also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside oil-for-food. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts in the indictment.

Yakovlev surrendered to FBI agents in Manhattan earlier Monday, as U.N.-backed investigators released a report accusing him and Benon Sevan, the former chief of the $64 billion program, of corruption. Sevan was accused of taking some $147,000 in kickbacks.

The probe, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, had recommended that both men’s diplomatic immunity be lifted if asked.

Later Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan waived Yakovlev’s immunity when he got just such a request from David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York.