The UN oil for food scandal just shifted into high gear with the super charger primed with parallel news stories: One where a top UN official has plead guilty to bribery; and the second where the UN’s OOF manager Sevin is accused with the UN official who plead guilty of bribery. Anyone doubting a plea deal here?

A former United Nations procurement officer was indicted and pleaded guilty Monday to soliciting a bribe under the oil-for-food program, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation.

Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian, also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside oil-for-food. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts in the indictment.

Yakovlev surrendered to FBI agents in Manhattan earlier Monday, as U.N.-backed investigators released a report accusing him and Benon Sevan, the former chief of the $64 billion program, of corruption. Sevan was accused of taking some $147,000 in kickbacks.

The probe, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, had recommended that both men’s diplomatic immunity be lifted if asked.

Later Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan waived Yakovlev’s immunity when he got just such a request from David Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York.

There was no suggestion that the timing of the report and Yakovlev’s guilty plea were coordinated. Volcker said Monday that Kelley had not cooperated with his probe.

The last line is completely disingenious. Of course Kelley did not cooperate with Volcker’s probe. It is in fact obvious Kelley was able to make a deal with Yakovlev to turn state’s evidence on Sevan (and hopefully others) in return for a lighter sentence. It is Volcker’s probe being driven by Kelley, and the Annan and the UN are being forced to cooperate. Why else the rapid removal of immunity, if not by the request of Yakovlev and Kelley?

UPDATE:

More on this at Captain’s Quarters