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Indian scams bring down Obama UN nominee
US president Barack Obama’s nominee to oversee financial reform at the United Nations has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job, several weeks after revelations that a wireless company he owned in India faced legal and financial troubles, according to US officials.
US president Barack Obama’s nominee to oversee financial reform at the United Nations has withdrawn his name from consideration for the job, several weeks after revelations that a wireless company he owned in India faced legal and financial troubles, according to US officials.
Jide Zeitlin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, informed the White House in a letter this week that he had withdrawn for personal reasons.
His decision comes amid indications that Zeitlin may have understated his company’s financial and legal troubles in a November 4 congressional hearing.
The move leaves the Obama administration nearly a year into its term without a point person to press for financial accountability at the United Nations, and sets the stage for a potentially lengthy effort to replace him.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, “We appreciate his willingness to serve and wish him the best of luck in the future.”
Zeitlin declined a request for comment.
Zeitlin’s company, Independent Mobile Infrastructure Ltd, has been embroiled in a dispute with dozens of Indian contractors who claim they have not been paid for building wireless towers throughout India.
Angry vendors have staged protests, filed criminal and civil lawsuits against the company and held at least one executive hostage for 24 hours, according to internal e-mails and other documents.
The account that emerges from those documents contrasts with the one Zeitlin presented to a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee last month. Zeitlin said his company “is financially strong and is living up to its contractual obligations and commitments” in India. He characterised one legal dispute with a contractor who sued him for more than $2.4 million in contested charges as a “garden variety commercial dispute” without merit.
An India-based representative of Zeitlin’s company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is still involved in sensitive talks with vendors, claimed that many of the contractors have submitted grossly inflated bills for services a common practice in the Indian telecommunications industry, the official added.
The official said that some contractors have sought to use Zeitlin’s nomination process to pressure the company into paying fraudulent invoices.
