Benny "The Dipster" Sevan

(Foto Benon Sevan, really.)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Former executive director Benon Sevan, the highest ranking U.N. official to be charged in relation to the program (Oil for Food), and Ephraim Nadler, brother-in-law of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, were named in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.

More than 2,300 companies have been investigated and some governments accused of having abused the $64 billion humanitarian program, which ran from 1996 until 2003."

---- Sevan, career UN diplomat since 1965. (What a pisser to have to take the slap on the wrist for all those involved over the years.)

Last I read Benny claimed his windfall cash came from his aunt. FT claimed "inquiries by investigators working for the US Congress are scrutinising statements by Mr Sevan that he received tens of thousands of dollars in cash annually from an aunt in Cyprus."

Inquiries by the FT suggest Mr Sevan's only close relative in Cyprus was an aunt who raised him after his parents' death. Unfortunately, auntie died after falling into an elevator shaft. Police, who declared her death an accident, never had a chance to interview her.

Note - Benny is accused of "abusing" the program, not rob, steal, thieve, poach, rustle, shoplift, pocket, purloin, swipe, etc.