UN employee arrested on visa fraud charges
7/8/2007 15:57
A UN employee was arrested yesterday by US authorities on charges of
helping aliens to enter the United States illegally, a UN spokesman
said.
Vyacheslav Manokhin, a UN employee working as a Russian translator for
the documents service, was charged with immigration fraud by the US Attorney for
the Southern District of New York, associate spokesman Farhan Haq said.
The
world body had informed the US Attorney on July 27 that the UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon had waived Manokhin's immunity, in accordance with the relevant
legal treaties, Haq noted.
He also said that the Office for Internal
Oversight Services had worked, through the Office of Legal Affairs, with the US
authorities on this matter, at their request.
The charges dated back to 2005
when Manokhin started using UN letterhead to invited foreigners into the United
States for so- called UN meetings that either did not exist or were not
attended, US prosecutors said in a statement.
Manokhin used his UN position
to make it appear as though the aliens' visa applications were supported by the
world body, the statement said.
Xinhua
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