U.N. Official Pleads Not Guilty to Corruption Charges

NEW YORK, Nov. 2 -- A senior United Nations official pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he steered millions of dollars in U.N. contracts to a businessman representing an Indian state company and was rewarded with a discounted New York City luxury apartment.

A Manhattan federal judge ordered the U.N. official, Sanjay Bahel of India, released Thursday on $900,000 bond, secured by $75,000 in cash, Bahel's 2004 Acura SUV and the title to his apartment. The businessman, Nishan Kohli, was released by a federal magistrate in Miami after posting $1 million bail.

The U.S. attorney for New York's Southern District in Manhattan, Michael J. Garcia, charged Bahel on Wednesday with taking a bribe from Kohli in exchange for helping to secure approval of more than $50 million in contracts for Kohli's clients. The two were arrested by federal authorities Wednesday in New York City and Miami.

Bahel's lawyer, Raymond Levites, said that his client "hasn't done anything wrong" and that Bahel paid a fair price for his apartment. He said Bahel had left the procurement office at the time he is accused of buying the apartment, and was therefore "not in a position to do anything for anybody." Kohli's lawyer, Jacob Laufer, did not respond to a request for a comment.

The indictment marked the latest phase of a federal investigation into corruption in the United Nations' $64 billion oil-for-food program and the U.N. purchasing department, leading to criminal charges against several U.S. and foreign nationals. Another U.N. procurement official, Alexander Yakovlev of Russia, pleaded guilty in August 2005 to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from companies doing business with the United Nations.

The indictment alleges that Bahel provided Kohli with insider information on confidential U.N. contract negotiations involving an Indian state company, Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. The company won more than $50 million in U.N. contracts for laptop computers, radio equipment and other gear for U.N. peacekeeping missions from January 2000 to September 2002.

Bahel is also charged with improperly using his influence to promote the interests of another company controlled by Kohli, Thunderbird Industries LLC, which is incorporated in the District and uses addresses in McLean and New York City.

The indictment states that Kohli established a company to buy a $1.24 million luxury condo at Dag Hammarskjold Tower in 2003, and leased it to Bahel for $5,000 a month. The apartment had previously been rented for $8,600 per month.

Kohli eventually sold the apartment, which had substantially increased in value, to Bahel for $1.2 million in March 2005. The condominium board appraised the apartment's value at "more than $1.9 million and quite likely, $2.05 million or more," according to the indictment.

Bahel was arrested after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed Wednesday to a U.S. request to waive the official's diplomatic immunity. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body had formally charged Bahel with misconduct Aug. 31 and had suspended him without pay. He said the United Nations presented U.S. and Indian authorities with a report on its findings.