Apparently once was not nearly enough for an old hand at official corruption: bagman Tongsun Park is back in the news and under arrest, this time here in Houston.
A key figure in the United Nations' Oil-for-Food scandal was arrested Friday by FBI officials at Bush Intercontinental Airport, federal officials said.South Korean-born Tongsun Park is accused of secretly working for Saddam Hussein's regime as part of a bribery scheme designed to get the United Nations to ease the economic sanctions imposed after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
"Saddam Hussein's government paid off Tongsun Park to corrupt the Oil-for-Food Program from its inception," said Michael Garcia, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose office has been handling the Oil-for-Food inquiry.
Park first gained notoriety back in the 1970s for his involvement in a congressional bribery scandal known as "Koreagate." Park was granted immunity in exchange for testimony against members of Congress.
Federal prosecutors first unveiled criminal charges against Park last April. A new criminal complaint was filed under seal Dec. 22. It was made public Friday in federal court in Manhattan. Park is accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud, acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. government, and money laundering.
The Washington Post had more details last April.
"An American success story" was how Tongsun Park described himself when he first came to the attention of the media and the FBI, in 1977, with gifts of hundreds of thousands of dollars to prominent politicians in an influence-peddling scandal that came to be known as "Koreagate."Posted by Alan at January 7, 2006 10:30 AMMore than a quarter of a century later, the South Korean businessman is back in the news, the subject of a federal arrest warrant that alleges he acted as an intermediary with corrupt U.N. officials in an oil-for-food conspiracy orchestrated by then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The criminal complaint charges that Park received at least $2 million from Iraq, much of it in cash delivered by diplomatic pouch from Baghdad.
Dubbed the "Oriental Gatsby" by the media because of his lavish Georgetown parties, Park put together an impressive list of friends and clients over the years, including former Panamanian strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, U.S. Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards. His charm was legendary, as was his habit of disbursing white envelopes stuffed with as much as $20,000 in cash to congressmen as part of a lobbying campaign financed by South Korean intelligence.
"Washington is a marvelous city for someone like me," he told the House ethics committee in April 1978. "Where else could a foreigner, an outsider like myself, do the things I was able to do?"
After the Koreagate scandal, Park continued to cultivate politicians, in the United States and abroad. He also kept in touch with friends such as Edwards, whom federal authorities accused of accepting $10,000 from Park. Park exported 1 million tons of Louisiana rice to Korea between 1966 and 1976.
In 2000, Park was spotted at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. At that time, he was reported to be living in the Dominican Republic, where he had petroleum and shipping interests. But he continued to travel to Washington, and was here as recently as last December, according to the FBI.