Ex-UN Official Sentenced to 8 Years
ap.google.com | 4/2/08 | Staff Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A former United Nations procurement official convicted of accepting bribes was sentenced Tuesday to eight years and a month in prison.
Sanjaya Bahel, 57, was sentenced after a jury found he had helped a friend win $100 million in U.N. contracts in exchange for a huge discount on two luxury Manhattan apartments and cash.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas P. Griesa also ordered Bahel to forfeit $103,500 and his interest in the apartments, near the United Nations headquarters. Bahel was chief of the U.N.'s Commodity Procurement Section from 1999 to 2003.
Before he was sentenced, Bahel apologized. "All that I have has been lost as I stand before you," Bahel told the judge as he requested mercy. "I have let down a great many people." Bahel was convicted of bribery, wire fraud and mail fraud last June. He has been incarcerated since.
Defense lawyer Richard Herman said Bahel would return to his native India after he serves his sentence. The criminal probe of Bahel began after the United Nations turned over an 86-page report on Bahel's conduct to federal prosecutors in July 2006.