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The granddaddy of conflicts of interest?:

Paul Volcker lobbyist for "emergency" UN funding

by Judi McLeod Thursday, June 16, 2005

Toronto, ON-- Long before he was handpicked by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi annan to lead an "independent" Inquiry Committee investigating the oil-for-food program, Paul Volcker was a big player as a lobbyist for "emergency" UN funding.

Volcker, caught up in a number of potential conflict-of-interests after his Inquiry appointment last year, was on the Leadership Council of the Emergency Coalition for U.S. Financial Support of the United Nations, canadafreeopress.com has discovered.

Founded in early 1997, the Emergency Coalition is a diverse, bipartisan coalition of former high-ranking government officials, including all of the former U.S. Secretaries of State, and more than 110 business, labor, civic, faith-based and humanitarian organizations that have joined together to urge full payment of U.S. legal obligations to the United Nations.

The coalition was launched the same year the oil-for-food program got underway to press the United States to pony up the more than $1.2-billion it is said to owe to the UN.

Forget that Volcker held a seat on Power Corporation's International advisory board; that he's a member of David Rockefeller's Trilateral Committee, and that until she stepped down on april 23, Rockefeller's granddaughter, attorney Miranda Duncan was on the Inquiry Committee's payroll.

Power Corp.'s founder, wealthy Montreal businessman Paul Desmarais Sr. is a major shareholder and director of TotalFinaElf, the biggest oil company in France, which held tens of billions of dollars in contracts with the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.

Given its official mandate, Volcker's membership on the Leadership Council of the Emergency Coalition for U.S. Financial Support of the United Nations, could be the granddaddy of all his potential conflicts of interest to date.

How is it possible that Volcker was trying to get "emergency" funding for the UN and then go on to lead an independent inquiry into the $65-billion oil-for-food scandal at the request of annan?

Even with the impeccable credentials Volcker carries as former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, his proverbial chickens are coming home to roost.

Only last March, annan claimed that he had been exonerated on ties to Cotecna by the findings of Volcker's investigation.

Two newly-discovered memoranda that have surfaced are now forcing investigators to re-examine whether annan used his influence at the UN to help his son, Kojo's former employer, Cotecna win a bid in the scandalized oil-for-food program.

"The memos are the first evidence from that time to suggest that Cotecna Inspection Services, a Swiss company that employed annan's son, Kojo may have had contact with the Secretary-General before making a successful bid for a UN contract issued under the oil-for-food program. (Times Online.co.uk).

"The memo describes a meeting between Cotecna and `the S.G. and his entourage' in Paris in 1998 and say that Cotecna expected `to count on their support'. The company was awarded a multi-million dollar contract a few weeks later."

Meanwhile, the ghosts of Volcker's past keep cropping up in his present, and his credibility as an independent investigator into the oil-for-food scandal seems to be flagging.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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