Sentence Reduced in Oil-for-Food Case

02/21/2008

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 20, 2008


A United States District Court judge has reduced the sentence of a South Korean businessman who accepted more than $2.5 million to secretly work on Iraq’s behalf to influence the United Nations oil-for-food program.

In a document filed Tuesday, Judge Denny Chin reduced the five-year sentence of the businessman, Tongsun Park, to three years and one month in prison after considering Mr. Park’s cooperation with the government and his medical condition.

Mr. Park, 72, was convicted in July 2006 of conspiring to violate federal law by acting as an agent of the government of Iraq, which paid him primarily in $100 bills.

As part of a sentencing deal, Mr. Park agreed to cooperate with the government, which said it would seek a reduction of his sentence within a year if he honored the terms of his deal.

The government asked the court on Jan. 24 to resentence Mr. Park based on his substantial assistance. A few days later, Mr. Park’s lawyers asked that their client be freed from prison after serving about 25 months, citing his “advancing age” and “serious medical condition.”

Mr. Park also has been fined $15,000 and ordered to forfeit $1.2 million. Messages for comment left with Mr. Park’s lawyers and prosecutors were not immediately answered.

In November, Judge Chin sentenced Oscar Wyatt Jr., 83, a Texas oilman, to a year and a day in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the case.

Operating from 1996 to 2003, the oil-for-food program was intended to let the Iraqi government sell oil primarily to buy food and medicine for its citizens. Sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait and brought about the Persian Gulf war in 1991.

By 2000, the authorities said, Saddam Hussein had begun insisting that kickbacks be paid to secure oil contracts.