Collection Agency Sues FBI, Businessman

By SAMUEL MAULL Associated Press Writer
2006 The Associated Press

NEW YORK — A South Korean businessman arrested on federal charges of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal owes tens of thousands of dollars in gambling debts, a lawyer for a collection agency said Tuesday.

Arnold Koenig, lawyer for National Recovery Systems, said his client is trying to collect the debt.

The collection agency sued Tongsun Park and the FBI on Friday, seeking $46,000 that federal agents seized from Park when he was arrested in January.

"We feel we are entitled to" the money, Koenig said. He added that Park's gambling losses, with interest, now amount to almost $1 million.

Park lost the money at a casino in 1999, according to court papers. Koenig did not identify the casino.

Park's lawyer, Jamie Gardner, said she had no comment on the suit.

Christine Monaco, an FBI spokeswoman, said she could not comment on the suit, but said generally no seized funds are released until a case is resolved.

She added that if the money was proceeds from an illegal activity, the government would probably keep it.

Park was charged in April 2005 with accepting millions of dollars from the Iraqi government while he operated in this country as an unregistered agent for Iraq's oil-for-food program. He became a fugitive when he failed to respond to a U.S. warrant.

The federal charges against Park say he agreed in October 1992 to work on behalf of the Iraqi government with another person who is now cooperating with U.S. authorities.

Park is charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud, conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and laundering the criminal proceeds derived from the crimes.

The oil-for-food program ran from 1996 to 2003 to help Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

In the 1970s, Park was at the center of what became known as the Koreagate scandal, in which he was accused of trying to buy influence in Congress.

This information is courtesy of http://www.chron.com/