The UN’s contracts-for-condos scandal

Yet another United Nations scandal for you. A top U.N. official, Sanjaya Bahel, was indicted this week by the U.S. government for awarding his pal, Nihant Kholi, contracts with the U.N. worth over $50 million for communications equipment. In return, Bahel got a condo in posh Dag Hammarskjold Towers (named after a former U.N. secretary-general) in ...

606358_corruption8.jpg
606358_corruption8.jpg

Yet another United Nations scandal for you. A top U.N. official, Sanjaya Bahel, was indicted this week by the U.S. government for awarding his pal, Nihant Kholi, contracts with the U.N. worth over $50 million for communications equipment. In return, Bahel got a condo in posh Dag Hammarskjold Towers (named after a former U.N. secretary-general) in midtown Manhattan, only a block away from the U.N. building. Bahel and his family lived there rent free for months before buying it on the cheap from Kholi. The price of the condo was so low that the condo board almost blocked the sale.

Yet another United Nations scandal for you. A top U.N. official, Sanjaya Bahel, was indicted this week by the U.S. government for awarding his pal, Nihant Kholi, contracts with the U.N. worth over $50 million for communications equipment. In return, Bahel got a condo in posh Dag Hammarskjold Towers (named after a former U.N. secretary-general) in midtown Manhattan, only a block away from the U.N. building. Bahel and his family lived there rent free for months before buying it on the cheap from Kholi. The price of the condo was so low that the condo board almost blocked the sale.

The fraud was first uncovered by the U.N.’s Procurement Task Force, originally set up to examine the procurement department after the controversy over the Iraq oil-for-food program. Before coming to the U.N., Bahel worked in the auditing department in the Indian Ministry of Defense, which is notorious for its own procurement scandals. You have to imagine that this is the last thing Kofi Annan wants in the newspapers as he heads into the last few weeks of his term.

Read More On United Nations

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.