New York, Dec. 22, 2006
Ram Parsad
Nishan Kohli, 30, of Miami, Florida pleaded guilty
in a bribery to a former senior Indian UN diplomat,
Sanjay Bahel for with cash and a luxury Manhattan
apartment to rent and later buy an apartment for his
family at reduced prices in order to get major deals
in his favour from United Nations.
Prosecutors said that contracts Kohli secured for
his companies included $36 million to provide radio
communications systems to U.N. missions in East Timor,
the Congo and elsewhere; $8 million to provide information
technology support to U.N. missions worldwide; and
$5 million to provide laptop computers.
Now trial date has been fixed May 07 for Sanjay Bahel,
55, to face charges that he accepted bribes from Kohli
to steer more than $50 million in contracts to companies
Kohli controlled. He has been suspended from his U.N.
job in charge of the postal office there without pay
since August, 2006. He was on deputation to the UN
from the Indian Defence Auditing Services. He got
contracts worth $100 million during his posting as
chief of commodity procurement for the world body
between 1998 and 2003 for TCIL (Telecommunications
Consultations of India Ltd)
Richard B. Herman, Bahel's attorney said that his
client never used his influence to favour Kohli's
business. He denied that Bahel received any cash payments.
Bahel had already left the UN procurement division
when he began renting an apartment from Kohli in 2003,
said Richard
Kohli remains free on $1 million bail and faces a
maximum of 10 years in prison but he could earn leniency
by fully cooperating with prosecutors.Sanjaya Bahel
is free on $900,000 bail.
Kohli admitted that he made cash payments and real
estate deals with Bahel after 2000 to benefit himself
and the companies he represented. Kohli said Bahel
provided him with a special cell phone so he could
communicate secretly with Bahel, who was the chief
of the U.N.'s Commodity Procurement Section from 1998
to 2003.
Jacob Laufer, Kohli's attorney said that Kohli signed
an agreement with federal authorities to cooperate
in their ongoing investigation into corruption at
the UN
