Samir Vincent also known as Samir Ambrose Vincent (born 23 October 1940) is an ethnic Assyrian Iraqi American that pleaded guilty in January 2005 to being an illegal agent for Saddam Hussein's government and helping to skim money from the

Oil-for-Food Programme The Oil-for-Food Programme (OIP), established by the United Nations in 1995 (under United Nations Security Council, UN Security Council United Nations Security Council Resolution 986, Resolution 986) was established to allow Iraq to sell Petrole ...

which earned him millions of dollars in the process.

Oil-for-Food Programme Scandal

In the aftermath of the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, the U.N. imposed sanctions on Iraq. As an unregistered agent for the Iraqi government, Vincent began lobbying in the U.S. for an end to the U.N. sanctions on the sale of

Iraqi oil Oil reserves in Iraq are considered the world's fifth-largest proven oil reserves, with 140 billion barrels. As a result of military occupation and civil unrest, the official statistics have not been revised since 2001 and are largely based on ...

. Vincent remained largely unsuccessful in his efforts until 1992 when he was introduced to

Tongsun Park Tongsun Park (born in 1935 Sunch'ŏn, Korea) is a former South Korean lobbyist. He was involved in two political money-related scandals: Koreagate scandal in the 1970s, and the Oil-for-Food Program scandal of the 2000s. Park had a reputation a ...

, who arranged for him to meet

Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali (; , ar, بطرس بطرس غالي ', ; 14 November 1922 – 16 February 2016) was an Egyptian politician and diplomat who served as the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1992 to 1996. An academic ...

, then the

secretary-general of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

. The

was set up to allow Iraq to sell its oil in return for humanitarian relief, so it would not breach sanctions imposed after the first Iraq war. However it transpired that the former Iraqi regime - which decided who could buy Iraqi oil - used the scheme to bribe people by awarding them contracts in return for a surcharge. Vincent eventually admitted to charges of fraud, tax violations and acting and conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Iraqi government.

1964 Summer Olympics

Vincent was also a competitor in the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

for Iraq. He took part in the 110 and 400 meter Hurdles, the Triple Jump and 4 x 100 metre Relay.

References

1940 births Living people American lobbyists United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal Money laundering Olympic athletes of Iraq Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics Iraqi male hurdlers Iraqi male sprinters Iraqi male triple jumpers Iraqi emigrants to the United States {{Iraq-athletics-bio-stub