Where are the conspiracy theorists when we need them?

Maurice Strong, who had business ties to a Korean businessman caught up in the oil-for-food scandal, also served on the board of Power Corporation, which had ties with TotalFinaElf, an oil company which allegedly profited nicely from the oil-for-food scam. And who else served on the Power Corporation board with Strong? Paul Volcker, the man the UN hired to investiate the program:

The next chapter in the United Nations crisis may erupt over U.N. investigator Paul Volcker's membership on the board of one of Canada's biggest companies, Power Corporation, since a past president of the firm, Canadian tycoon Maurice Strong, is now tied to the oil-for-food scandal.
[...]
News of Mr. Volcker's spot on the board of Power Corporation first surfaced soon after the former chairman of the Federal Reserve was nominated by Mr. Annan to head the Independent Inquiry Committee last year.

At that time, a possible conflict of interest involved the Power Corporation's ties to the French bank BNP, which handled oil-for-food accounts, and to the French oil company Total, which also profited from oil-for-food business.

Mr. Volcker said then that he was a member of many boards of directors and that his role at Power would not affect his work. He would "occasionally pursue his avocation of salmon fishing with Canadian friends, sometimes including a Power Corporation executive," the committee said in a statement issued at the time, addressing his involvement with the company.

There may be nothing to all of this, but at the very least, you'd think the conspirozoid sites and leftist "alternative" media would be all over it. And you would be wrong. I guess it's not really a scandal if George W. Bush or the Jooooooos aren't involved.

Posted by damian at April 22, 2005 01:51 PM | TrackBack