For a sample of what the jury is now trying to decipher, there is the following tale, as told Thursday to the jury by cooperating government witness Samir Vincent (The defense has not yet had an opportunity to cross-examine Vincent):
In early 1996, about 10 months before Oil-for-Food finally rose from the vat as a living U.N. program, Tongsun Park allegedly asked Vincent for $10 million from Iraq to take care of his "expenses" and his "people." Vincent relayed this to his contact and friend, the then-ambassador of Iraq to the U.N. in New York, Nizar Hamdoon.
Asking, "Why don't we make some money?" Hamdoon suggested a different arrangement: Instead of asking Baghdad to bankroll $10 million for Park, Vincent and Hamdoon should ask for $15 million, give $5 million to Park and keep the remaining $10 million for themselves.
In short order, Hamdoon reported to Vincent that Iraq had approved the request. Vincent set off immediately for Baghdad, making arrangements to transfer the expected $15 million to offshore accounts. When he arrived in Baghdad, all seemed well. He was received with smiles and tea by Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Rashid, and invited to compose contracts spelling out the arrangements for the $5 million and $10 million payments, which Rashid signed.
Vincent went off to visit with some friends he had in Baghdad, excited about prospects for further business in Iraq. Then he went back to his hotel and took a nap.
Later that day, to his surprise, he was summoned back to the oil ministry. The minister, Rashid, escorted Vincent into a conference room where there was a canvas bag on the floor, full of money, and told Vincent to empty his briefcase.
"I emptied my briefcase."
A secretary then reached into the canvas bag, pulling out $10,000 bundles of $100 bills. The secretary counted out $450,000, which Vincent was told to put in his briefcase.
Prosecutor: "And were you able to fit $450,000 in cash into your briefcase?"
Vincent: "Very difficult, because I had a small briefcase and all of a sudden my briefcase was bulging."
Rashid told Vincent: "This is money you are going to take back with you as a token of our good will and as a downpayment of the two agreements you signed this morning."
Vincent objected that this "would be quite a problem" at U.S. customs. Rashid said: "That's not my problem, that's your problem."
To get the cash back to New York, Vincent drove across the Iraqi desert the next day, had his driver smuggle it across the Jordanian border, retrieved it from his driver and flew to Frankfurt. There he hooked up with a "former business associate," paying him $30,000 from the stash for help in getting the money into the U.S. They flew together from Germany to Newark, then split up as they left the plane. The associate, according to Vincent, passed through customs carrying both the contracts and the cash — which he had stuffed in his socks, shirt, coat and underwear — "He had it all over his body."
Meanwhile, Vincent was pulled aside by U.S. officials who "asked me if I had money with me." They searched his suitcase and briefcase, and finally let him go through. It occurred to him "somebody in Iraq or somewhere must have informed somebody in the United States that I was carrying a lot of money."
Having retrieved the cash from his associate, Vincent brought it the next day to Hamdoon, at the Iraqi mission. Hamdoon put $100,000 in a brown envelope "for Tongsun Park," then "gave me $10,000 to keep for myself and he kept the rest of the money."
That evening, said Vincent, he met Park in a Manhattan coffeeshop. "I opened my briefcase and told him there's $100,000 here as a downpayment." They talked for awhile, and then Vincent left.
Prosecutor: "So when you left, Park was sitting at the table?
Vincent: "That's correct. I was hoping he would take care of the bill."
