Cokie Roberts, Patton, Hale, Boggs/Dems tie-in to Oil for Food/KoreaGate!

[KoKo]

washingtonpost.com
'Koreagate' Figure Tied To Oil-for-Food Scandal
Businessman Allegedly Received $2 Million From Iraq

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 15, 2005; Page A19

"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."

More 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.

-Snip- (good stuff I had to snip out)

Park gained his entree into Washington society as a student at Georgetown University, where his classmates included Thomas H. Boggs Jr., son of a former House leader, who went on to become a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser and lobbyist. Boggs's law firm is representing Park in the oil-for-food case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54646-2005Apr14.html


AND............

April 15, 2005
Accusations Against Lobbyist Echo Charges in 70's Scandal


By TODD S. PURDUM

ASHINGTON, April 14 - Back then the commodity in play was rice and this time, a criminal complaint alleges, it was oil. But nearly 30 years after Tongsun Park, a South Korean businessman, stood at the center of the Koreagate influence-peddling scandal that rocked official Washington, he has emerged at the center of the United Nations' Iraqi oil-for-food scandal - accused in a strikingly similar scheme.

Mr. Park is 70 now, no longer the brash Georgetown host and bon vivant known as the "Onassis of the Orient" and famous in the eight-track era for his $32,000 stereo system, chauffeured limousine and a guest list that ran the gamut from Gerald R. Ford to Frank Sinatra. But the complaint unsealed in Manhattan on Thursday suggests that age may not have slowed his approach.

In 1977, Mr. Park was charged with 36 counts of conspiracy, bribery, mail fraud, failure to register as a foreign agent and making illegal political contributions. A long investigation found that he had concocted a scheme, with the help of high-ranking Korean Central Intelligence Agency officials, to collect inflated commissions from sales of American-grown rice to South Korea, and to use some of the money to buy support for South Korea in Congress.

The charges were later dropped, after Mr. Park testified at Congressional hearings and in front of federal grand juries. His testimony led to ethics proceedings and criminal charges against several members of Congress and former members and made him a boldface name in the string of post-Watergate corruption inquiries conducted here in the late 1970's.

Now, federal prosecutors in Manhattan say in a criminal complaint that he was paid at least $2 million by Saddam Hussein's Iraq for lobbying United Nations officials to create the oil-for-food program. That program waived the economic penalties imposed after the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and let Iraq sell oil, ostensibly to buy aid supplies. The complaint charges Mr. Park, who is believed to be in South Korea, only with failing to register as a foreign agent, as required by law. He could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/politics/15park.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[tabasco]

1. The guy sounds like a wildman.

I wish I could go to one of his kickass parties.

The guy must be a genius too. Getting paid to throw parties. Cool.

I bet Rangel is a wildman too. I'd love to party with that guy. Seriously.

[KoKo]

2. ROFL......you have the good attitude for these dark times...maybe

you will be lucky if you go to DC and offer your services other than the one you've given to your contry. I'm sure DC is one big Party Town celebrating on the backs of average Americans, these days.

[KoKo]

3. kick........