MILAN – “From your best friend.” With a man who had the kindness to transfer 754,000 euros to an offshore checking account, it could not have been otherwise. The friend is Leopoldo Bragieri, the hidden partner and de facto administrator of Cogim spa, a Piacenza-based company specializing in the construction of prefabricated residential modules. The recipient of the money is Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian who until 2005 headed the United Nations Procurement Office, a strategic position that placed orders worth tens of millions of dollars. The dedication written on bank documents was used to make Yakovlev realize the money came from Bragieri and, according to the Milan prosecutor’s office’s reconstruction, was a “tip” for providing the Italian company with $27.9 million worth of prefabricated construction supplies. Judge Cristina Di Censo ordered the preventive seizure of an amount equal to the value of the alleged bribe. The case, which is in the preliminary hearing stage, is in the hands of prosecutor Alfredo Robledo, who last March handed down Europe’s first convictions in a case of international corruption in the oil-for-food program under which the UN bought crude oil quotas from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, then under embargo, in exchange for humanitarian aid. Preventive seizure was imposed on Cogim spa, which is liable under Law 231 for failing to adopt governance models capable of preventing wrongdoing by its directors. An investigation by the Commission of Inquiry set up by the UN Security Council to uncover illegal actions under the Oil-for-Food program and the Milan prosecutor’s office revealed a series of payments made by Bragieri to an offshore company, Moxyco Ltd, traceable to Yakovlev, at Antigua Overseas Bank in Antigua (Netherlands Antilles). From Moxyco, the money was then returned to Europe to special accounts opened in Switzerland in the names of the UN official himself and his wife Olga. Yakovlev, who had already been arrested in New York after confessing to other episodes of bribery, admitted on March 23, in the presence of prosecutor Robledo, that he had helped Bragieri win a 27 million euro tender for prefabricated products, violating his duty of impartiality. According to Yakovlev’s reconstruction, the Italian businessman then suggested adding the reference “your best friend” to the bank forms that had to be filled out to recognize the origin of the money.
Source: https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/07/14/tangenti-all-onu-nei-guai-italiana.html