[A2k] [Fwd: [Open-wipo] Swiss Investigate Possibility of Bribery in WIPO Contract]

[Manon Ress]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Open-wipo] Swiss Investigate Possibility of Bribery in WIPO
Contract
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 14:33:54 +0100
From: Darius Cuplinskas <cuplinsk@osi.hu>
To: open-wipo list <open-wipo@lists.essential.org>


Swiss Investigates Possibility of Bribery in U.N. Contract
By JUDITH MILLER

April 16, 2005
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/16/international/europe/16nations.html


A Swiss judge is investigating possible bribery charges involving a $50
million contract to renovate the headquarters of a Geneva-based United
Nations agency, according to government documents and Swiss and American
officials.

Jean-Bernard Schmid, the Geneva-based judge who has led the criminal
inquiry, said in a telephone interview on Friday that his investigation was
focusing on Michael Wilson, who was a consultant to the company that won
the renovation contract at the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Mr. Wilson, a Ghanaian businessman, has been identified by investigators as
a business associate of Kojo Annan, the son of Kofi Annan, the United
Nations secretary general. The judge said Kojo Annan was not a target of
the investigation.

Investigators said the judge was trying to determine if Mr. Wilson had
bribed a senior official at the United Nations agency to win the renovation
contract. Edward Kwakwa, the agency's legal counsel, said Khamis Suedi, a
top official at the intellectual property agency, acknowledged having
received 325,000 Swiss francs, about $270,000, from Mr. Wilson, but said
the money was from a private business venture that had no connection to the
agency's construction contract. In an interview, Mr. Suedi said he had had
nothing to do with the awarding of the contract.

Mr. Kwakwa said the agency's internal regulations, which are under review,
permitted agency employees to have outside business interests as long as
they were reported to the agency, approved by the agency's director and did
not involve intellectual property. Mr. Suedi recently informed the agency
that he was leaving in late April to pursue other activities, Mr. Kwakwa
said, adding that he was not aware that Mr. Suedi had violated any rules of
the agency, which registers and protects intellectual property.

Mr. Wilson did not return repeated phone messages seeking comment.

The criminal investigation was first reported Friday by Le Temps, a
Geneva-based newspaper. Judge Schmid confirmed information published in the
article, but declined to elaborate on details of his inquiry.

Mr. Wilson's relationship with Kojo Annan was cited in a recent report
issued by the United Nations commission investigating its oil-for-food
program in Iraq. According to the commission, Mr. Wilson was a vice
president at Cotecna Inspection S.A., a company that worked for the
oil-for-food program, and Mr. Wilson helped get Mr. Annan a job at the
company.

After both men left Cotecna, they became partners in a consulting business
in Africa, according to investigators in the United States and Europe. Kojo
Annan's lawyer, Clarissa Amato, declined comment for publication.

The Swiss investigation concerns Mr. Wilson's activities in Geneva. Mr.
Kwakwa said Mr. Wilson had been an intern at the intellectual property
agency "decades ago" when his father was posted in Geneva as an ambassador
from Ghana. Mr. Kwakwa said that more recently Mr. Suedi told officials
there that he and Mr. Wilson had been doing work that involved "benevolent,
nongovernmental organizations." Mr. Kwakwa said the outside work had been
approved by the agency.

In a March interview, Mr. Suedi said that he and Mr. Wilson had done some
consulting work in connection with the prospective purchase and management
of hotels in Tanzania, but that it "hadn't worked out."

Officials said that after opening the investigation last year, Judge Schmid
ordered Mr. Wilson jailed for nine days, during which investigators
reviewed his computer files and bank records. Investigators said he was
released after he agreed to cooperate with the inquiry and acknowledged
having received a large consulting fee from the BPS construction consortium
- comprising B=E9ric S.A., Perret and Seydoux-DMB, - that renovated the
headquarters. He also acknowledged having made a payment to Mr. Suedi.

The agency is one of several United Nations agencies and affiliated
organizations whose management practices have recently been criticized by
internal and outside reviews. A review published in February by United
Nations officials in New York recommended substantial changes in the
agency's budgeting and personnel policies.

"The inspectors believe a headquarters review and needs assessment should
be undertaken urgently," says the review, a copy of which is posted on the
agency's Web site.
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--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
Washington, DC 20036, USA Tel.:  +1.202.387.8030, fax: +1.202.234.5176

Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva, 1 Route des  Morillons, CP
2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland. Tel: +41 22 791 6727

Consumer Project on Technology in London, 24 Highbury Crescent, London,
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